A Pirate and a Princess
by starfishify
Summary: Jim Hawkins crash-lands on Earth and meets Cinderella. A fairy godmother, a Silver cyborg, a not-so-Charming Prince, a treasure map, a glass slipper, and a ball attacked by pirates are all involved in this sci-fi fairy tale! Adventure and romance. JimxCindy.
1. Crash Landing

A Disney crossover, Treasure Planet meets Cinderella.

Jim Hawkins x Cinderella.

Adventure/Romance.

Rated E for everyone.

Summary: While on the search for Treasure Planet, Jim Hawkins' ship goes through the black hole and crash-lands on Earth, where Jim meets a servant girl named Cinderella. A fairy godmother, a Silver cyborg, a not-so-Charming Prince, a treasure map, a glass slipper, and a ball attacked by pirates are all involved when Jim crash-lands into someone else's fairy tale.

"A Pirate and a Princess"

OR

"Cinderella and the Pirates"

Ch. 1 - Crash-Landing

When Jim Hawkins had set out on this insane adventure, this blind leap into the mind-boggling vastness of space, he had never in his wildest dreams imagined where it would take him. He had imagined Treasure Planet, yes –dreamed of it longingly, with the incredible crystal clear imagination of youth that an adult would be startled by if they somehow stumbled into it. But as the ship tore through the Etherium of space toward the raging black hole, created by a star going supernova and collapsing on itself, he realized his adventure might take him even farther, perhaps farther than anyone had ever been before. If the ship went through the black hole, there was no telling where they would come out on the other side. They might come out so far away that he would never be able to return to his home planet, not if he sailed back at breakneck speed for his entire life. That was how big space was. He realized if the ship entered that ink black vortex, he might never see his mother again. All hope of Treasure Planet faded in that instant; he only hoped to see home. And if they didn't survive going through the black hole, which was very likely, then he would be going somewhere even farther.

The crew fought valiantly to save the R. L. S Legacy, to steer it away from the maelstrom; Captain Amelia did her best at the helm, and John Silver and his mates followed her orders to the best of their ability, but it was not enough. In the end, the ship steered straight into the center of the hole, unable to escape the current of gravity, and as the bow plunged into the blackness the crew braced themselves on whatever was closest, preparing for the worst. Jim gripped the mast of the ship, more terrified than he would have ever admitted, and he felt a strong arm wrap around him. It was Long John Silver, standing beside the boy, giving him comforting assurance in the face of death. He was glad Silver was there next to him, in the end. He saw a small pink blob zoom by as Silver's small shape-shifting creature companion Morph dived into his pocket, obviously terrified, but come to be with Jim as well, and Jim was grateful for him too. They were surrounded by utter darkness as the ship sank in, and Jim prepared himself to be ripped apart into billions of atoms.

But the painful ripping didn't come. He wondered if maybe one felt no pain when they died. Was he dead? He opened his eyes but still saw nothing but inky blackness, which gave him no answer either way. Then there was a light, it grew blinding, and the crew shut their eyes and again braced themselves as the ship came zooming back into space. Jim looked around in amazement; they had passed through the black hole. He could see the twisted starless section of space behind them that must have been the exit of the wormhole, from which they were soaring speedily away, like a little toy boat flushing out of a gutter. The crew gave a massive cheer, leaping and shouting with joy and even embracing one another. Jim was so happy to be alive he let Silver embrace him heartily, and hugged him back. Morph flew out of his pocket, squealing with delight.

"Get a hold of yourselves, men," Captain Amelia roared, interrupting the crew's reverie. She was still stationed at the helm, hands firmly gripped on the wheel. "We may be alive for the moment, but we're not out of trouble yet. Haven't you noticed how fast we're going? That wormhole spit us out with so much energy, I don't think I can stop the ship."

The ship was moving scarily fast, Jim noticed – faster than he had ever seen a ship move before. "But it must slow down eventually," he said.

"Things in motion don't just slow down out in space, lad," Silver said with a grimace. "You push it and it will keep gliding onward 'til the end of eternity."

"We won't have long enough to find out," Amelia retorted. "We're heading straight into the atmosphere of that planet."

A blue and green planet with swirling white clouds was approaching scarily fast, growing to engulf their entire line of vision.

"I can't believe it!" Jim's friend Delbert, the learned astronomer, barked beside him. "We've come through a wormhole! Into an entirely different sector of space! Do you realize the implications of this? Just our arrival here could irreversibly alter the timeline of this universe!"

"What planet is that?" Jim asked, staring at the vast orb of green, blue, and swirling white. "It's beautiful." He wondered hopefully if it was Treasure Planet, but he doubted it. He wondered if Treasure Planet would have been this beautiful.

"Haven't the slightest idea!" Delbert replied. "Just look at these stars! They're completely different from our own, like nothing I've ever seen, not even on a map! There's no telling where that wormhole has spit us out at!"

"No no, these constellations look familiar," Silver said pensively. "I think I've seen them before in the star charts. If I'm right, we must be on the very edge of the galaxy, but we could still get home-"

"It hardly matters now," Amelia roared, struggling to control the wheel. "If we crash into this planet, there won't be a ship to get home in!"

The air was now rushing around the ship as it plunged down into the atmosphere. They were immersed in wet white clouds, spraying their faces with tiny drops. The rushing of air had grown into so loud a roar that the crew could barely hear their captain's orders. "There's no saving the ship now!" Amelia cried. "I've never flew a ship into an atmosphere at this speed, no where near it! I can't possibly land it. I have to save us. All hands abandon ship! Now, that's an order!"

The crew rushed to the rocket-propelled lifeboats. There would have been enough room for everyone if they had done it right, but the most vicious and the quickest of the pirates leaped into the nearest boats and launched them, without waiting for any others. Amelia screamed at them, but they took no notice and could no longer hear what she was saying anyways. Brawls broke out over the remaining lifeboats, and many launched with crewmen still wrestling each other onboard, throwing each other out, and dangling off the edge hanging on for dear life. Only three boats were left now. Delbert met eyes with Jim and pointed at the boat behind the boy, signaling for him to get on. Jim nodded. He saw Delbert grab Amelia's arm and wrench her away from the wheel, pulling her to the lifeboat nearest them. Jim gripped Morph in his pocket as he ran to the boat nearest him, over which two pirates were scuffling.

"Both of you get on!" Jim screamed at them. "There's room for all of us!" He moved to clamber aboard, but one of the pirates punched him in the stomach, sending him flying back to the deck. It was Scroop who had punched him - the enormous eight-legged insectoid pirate who had bullied Jim from the start of the voyage, and who – unknown to the rest of the crew - had murdered Arrow, the first mate. The air was knocked out of Jim as he lay sprawled on the deck. He looked up and saw John Silver suddenly there; the cyborg punched both the pirates, sending them sprawling to the deck as well. In the moment it took for them to get back on their feet, Silver had already lifted Jim off the ground, placed him in the lifeboat, and hit the launch button.

"Silver, get in!" Jim shouted at him. But the boat was already moving away, and the moment Silver could have used to hop in, he used instead to beat away the two scoundrel pirates who were themselves about to jump for it. Jim watched helplessly as his boat flew away from the ship; it was on autopilot, keeping him from going back for Silver. On the other side of the ship he saw Delbert and Amelia escaping in their lifeboat. There was but one boat left on the entire ship, and the remaining crew were fighting their hardest over it. Jim met eyes with Silver as his boat bore him away. Whatever dark suspicions Jim had had about Silver, they now paled to insignificance in light of what Silver had just done for him. Whether he had been a pirate, a murderer, a scoundrel, a villain – whether he had been planning a mutiny or to steal all the treasure for himself – did not matter now, because in the end, the man had sacrificed his own hope of survival to give it to the boy instead. Jim wished with everything inside him that Silver would somehow get on that last lifeboat.

The R. L. S. Legacy looked like a huge meteor now, plunging into the atmosphere, leaving fiery trails behind it, streaked across the sky. Jim's lifeboat plunged into a cloud, and the ship was lost from sight.

As the lifeboat dived toward the surface of the unknown planet, Jim realized once again that he was probably about to die. But Morph was still securely in his pocket, nestled against him, so at least he would not die alone.

As the clouds cleared he saw with some relief that he was above green land, which was very lucky since most of the planet had appeared to be ocean. The ground was rushing up to meet them at terrifying speed. Trees became discernible, and houses! The thought rushed through his head that there were people on his planet, and maybe, just maybe they had ships of their own, and could help him return home. If he survived the landing. He wondered musingly if what he would find here would compare to the treasure still undiscovered on Treasure Planet.

The lifeboat itself was a small meteor now, leaving a fiery trail in its wake. Jim could finally take it no longer: he squeezed his eyes shut to block out the terrifying vision, clutching one hand on the side of the boat and one firmly around Morph in his pocket. Just when he thought they must me about to hit the ground and be blasted into fiery pieces, he felt a sudden violent jerk beneath him. His seat had been ejected from the boat, and the parachute had deployed. He drifted slowly in his seat to the treetops, as a little distance away the boat carved a fiery hole through the trees and crashed into the ground with a thunderous noise that he felt all through his body. He could see the smoking crater it had made, and thanked his lucky stars he hadn't been in it. One of the parachute strings caught on a branch, causing his seat to tip over, and Jim and Morph toppled out, crashed through several feet of vegetation and finally landing on soft grass.

Jim lay panting on the ground as Morph, beside him, affectionately kissed the dirt. "I agree," Jim wheezed, and he planted a large kiss on the ground of the unknown planet directly beneath him. Then his head hit the ground limply, and the exhausted boy fell asleep.

Not a mile away there was a large house, on the outskirts of a city, and as Jim had fallen asleep, a girl inside had woken up just minutes before. It was the early morning, and she had awoke at the sound of the castle bells in the distance. Though the house was large and magnificent, clearly belonging to aristocracy, the girl's room was bare and decrepit, and at the very top of the house in the attic. She climbed out of her small slipshod bed, stretched, yawned, then looked out the window to see a fiery light falling through the sky, leaving a trail in its wake. "Oh look!" she cried in delight. "A shooting star!" Her dark blonde hair fell around her shoulders as she craned her head out the window, her dreamy blue eyes glued on the star. "I wish," she said, clutching the windowsill and watching the star fall, "I wish with all my heart that he would find me."

"Who, you ask?" she said with a smile to the little birds flitting around her window. She put her elbows on the windowsill and leaned her chin on her hand, watching the star falling down, down, down. "The one I was dreaming about," she said. The star fell below the tree line, and a massive crash thundered through the air and rattled the house around her. "Goodness!" she cried, leaping back from the window in alarm. She could see smoke rising from the Earth where the star had hit, not a mile away from the house. "Well," she mused to herself, "I wonder if that means my wish will come true or not."

"Cinderella!" a harsh voice shouted from downstairs, disturbing the girl from her thoughts, and she turned and rushed out of her little attic room.

Jim was at a loss of what to do next; he was stranded on an alien planet, separated from his crewmates, with nothing but the clothes he was wearing and the small creature Morph tucked in his pocket. He had examined the wreckage of his lifeboat and saw it was completely unsalvageable. He had no idea where the other lifeboats had landed, or if they had even survived the crash. He did not even know what planet he was on, nor what sector of the galaxy. He did not know if there was any chance of his returning home, but if there was even the slightest chance of seeing his home and his mother again, he would take it. The only thing to do was to the trek to the nearest settlement and scout out the natives. It was possible they had spaceports on this planet, and the technology to launch him back to his home planet. He had nothing to barter for passage on a ship, but he could work for it.

There was one other thing he had, he remembered: the map, tucked in the pocket that was not occupied by Morph. He felt the smooth orb beneath his hand, the one known map to the legendary Treasure Planet. That was certainly worth something, and it was all he had. He gripped it tightly in his pocket. It had been lucky he had had it on him before the ship crashed, or it would have been lost with the rest of the ship. Still, he would have traded it gladly to have the crew with him instead.

He had been walking through the woods as he pondered this, and saw the native flora was not unlike he was used to: green trees and grass and bushes. He hoped he would look similar enough to the natives to blend in. He emerged from the woods to see a huge mansion surrounded by beautiful gardens; it was magnificent, but he had the sense it had not been well cared for in years, as if the rich people who lived here had come on hard times. "Morph," he whispered to the little creatures peaking out of his pocket. "Stay in there and be quiet until I say you can come out. Alright?" Morph nodded in understanding and squirmed back into his pocket. Jim wandered toward the house, thinking to catch a glimpse of the natives, and maybe even ask them for help. There were animals in the yard, some on four legs and some on two, but nothing too strange compared to some of the aliens Jim had seen. He followed a path up to the front door. He decided not to knock, but instead opened the door just wide enough to slip inside, and shut it quietly behind him.

He was standing inside a grand entrance room with a high ceiling and a sweeping staircase. He saw no one, but he heard someone humming a song from the other side of the staircase. He walked very quietly around the staircase until he could see the other side, and then he froze in his tracks, for he had stumbled on a girl.

She was on her knees on the floor in the middle of the room, a bucket of water beside her, and she was scrubbing the floor while singing to herself. She was looking the other way and did not notice Jim. Jim should have ducked quickly out of sight before she could spot him, but strangely this did not cross his mind, because he was too busy staring at the girl. He could not tear his eyes off her. It was not because she looked strange or alien; in fact she was human, like Jim. She was dressed in dirty clothes, her ragged patched skirt falling around her dirt-smeared legs, her dark golden hair tied back so as to not fall in her face. Even though she was dirty and ragged and engaged in scrubbing the floor, she moved gracefully, like a princess, even though she was not aware anyone was watching, and she was the most beautiful girl Jim had ever seen.

She glanced around and saw him. "Oh!" she said, startled. She dropped her scrub brush in surprise and sat up straight on her knees to look at him. But Jim stood still frozen in his tracks. "Hello," she said. Jim saw her eyes scan him up and down, and he felt suddenly self-conscious. He realized that after that crash landing, his brown hair was no doubt a mess, and his clothes must have been even dirtier than the girl's.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"Uh, yes," he said nonchalantly. He leaned an elbow against the staircase railing and smiled at her. "I was just wondering, have I seen you in the night sky? Because, you've got a heavenly body."

The girl stared at him in bewilderment.

"It's supposed to be funny," he explained.

"Oh," she said. "I'm sorry; I must have missed it."

"Oh, it's not your fault," he said hurriedly. "See, I'm not from around here."

"I thought not," she said. "You look like a traveler. Oh I know, you must be here to stay in the guest room."

Jim took a risk and nodded. "Yes," he said stupidly.

"Well come on, I'll show you to Lady Tremaine." He followed her as she led him up the staircase. "Did you see the guest room advertised in the papers?" she asked. "Or did someone tell you we were renting it out?"

"Word of mouth," Jim said haphazardly.

"The house is so big, we have the room," the girl continued. "And Lady Tremaine decided to rent out the guest room, since, you know, times are hard – well anyways, it's a very lovely room, and you've got the whole house and the grounds to make yourself at home in, and meals are all included with the boarding fee. I'm sure you'll like it here," she said enthusiastically.

"I'm sure I will," Jim said, staring at her.

The house was enormous and beautiful, but felt empty and lonely. It seemed most of the furniture and paintings had been sold; Jim could see the pale patches on the walls where they used to be. They came to the second floor landing, and a tall thin woman came swooping down another staircase to meet them. She looked very aristocratic, wearing a long gown and her gray hair done up on her head, but the permanent scowl on her face and the way her eyes peered distrustfully down her hooked nose made Jim instantly dislike her. She smiled at him, which did little to mask the permanent scowl.

"He's here to rent the guest room, ma'am," the girl said to the woman standing imperiously above them on the staircase.

"Ah, wonderful!" the woman cooed. "We've had the advertisements up for weeks, but we hardly ever get travelers in these parts, with the roads being so full of robbers these days and the seas so full of pirates." Jim flinched a little at the mention of pirates, remembering his recent experiences, and wondering if he himself was considered a pirate after sailing with such a crew on a quest for treasure.

Two girls in splendid gowns came hurrying down the staircase; they seemed the same age as the dirty ragged girl, but were so different from her in every other respect that they could hardly be compared. They came down the stairs pushing and shoving each other, each trying to arrive first, and then the brunette one pulled the redhead's hair and they bickered at each other under their breath. They came to stand behind the woman and quieted themselves quickly, standing tall and holding their chins up in the air, smiling down at Jim. Jim forced a smile back.

The woman continued, "I am Lady Tremaine, and these are my two daughter, Anastasia and Drisella." The girls curtsied. "You are welcome to join us at meals," Lady Tremaine went on. "Breakfast at nine, lunch at noon, tea at four, and dinner at six. Feel free to look around the house and the grounds; we have lovely gardens. If there is anything you need, feel free to ask." She gestured to the dirty ragged girl as she said that, and Jim realized she must be employed as a servant. He was already thinking up things to ask her for help with. "May I ask," the woman said, interrupting his thoughts, "how long you plan on staying?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest," Jim said with a shrug. "I'm a traveler, as you can see," he said, gesturing down to his dirty clothes singed at the edges from the crash, "but I've been separated from the people I was traveling with. Can you tell me if there's a port nearby?"

"Oh yes, there's a port very close by," the woman said. "But if you're thinking of crossing the channel, let me warn you, it's swarming with pirates of late."

"I'm not afraid of pirates," Jim said with a smirk.

"Well, you seem a brave and resourceful young man. What's your name?"

"Jim Hawkins, ma'am."

"Well Mr. Hawkins, until you figure out your travel plans, you're welcome to stay indefinitely," the woman said, and her daughters seemed delighted by this idea. "Don't worry about payment right now," she said, "we'll discuss that later." Jim frowned; he had forgotten about the payment part.

The woman turned to the servant girl. "Cinderella," she commanded imperiously, in a completely different tone than she used with Jim or her daughters, "show our guest to his room, and make sure he's completely comfortable."

"Yes, ma'am," the girl said.

"Welcome to our home, Mr. Hawkins," the woman said with a cold smile, and she turned to go back up the stairs, gesturing for her daughters to follow. The daughters snuck glances back at Jim and giggled.

"This way," the girl said, leading him down the hallway. A large black cat leaped in front of Jim, startling him, and then hissed at him viciously before darting away with a menacing low growl.

"Unfriendly little bugger, isn't he?" Jim said, scowling at the cat.

"Oh, that's Lucifer," the girl said, with a giggle at the look on Jim's face. "Watch out for him."

"I will," Jim agreed heartily.

The girl opened the door to a large and luxurious room. "This is your suite," she said. "There's a bathroom and even some men's clothes in the wardrobe." She seemed to hesitate at this.

"Do they belong to someone?" Jim asked curiously.

"There were my father's," she admitted.

"Where is he?"

"In heaven," she answered, looking very sad.

"I don't have a father either," Jim said. "Mine left when I was little. He just walked out, abandoned my mother and me."

"I'm sorry," the girl said. "At least I can think that mine is looking down at me and watching."

"There was one," Jim found himself saying, without thinking, "who was almost like a father to me. I hardly knew him really, but," he trailed off, leaning against the wall as the girl listened to him, entranced. "Well, he really believed in me, like I was worth something. His name was Silver. He saved my life. And now I don't know if I'll ever see him again."

She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled sadly at him. "You'll be alright," she said gently. "It's hard, having to go on alone, but we do our best, and maybe we make them proud anyway." Jim looked into her bright blue eyes, her hand on his shoulder. She broke away, and Jim wished she could have kept it there a while longer. The girl fell into her servant role again. "Please tell me if there is anything I can do to make you more comfortable."

She turned to walk away. "Wait," he called, and she looked at him with her bright blue eyes. "She said your name was..." he struggled a moment to remember, because it had been a strange name, "...Cinderella."

"That's what they call me," she said with a smile. "It's a funny name, I know," she added, embarrassed.

"Oh no, it's-" Jim stumbled, "-lovely."

She smiled. "My real name is just Ella," she hesitated, "but nobody's called me that in years."

"I'll call you that," Jim said eagerly. "Ella."

She gave him a dazzling smile. "I have to go do my chores," she said. "It's orders. But call me if you need anything…Jim." She gave a little curtsy, and walked away down the hall. Jim watched her walk away, gracefully and nobly, despite the demeaning chores she was about to go do. She was the complete opposite of the other women in the house; he could see that already. He thought she should have been born a princess instead of a servant girl, but life was never fair.


	2. The Girl Named Ella

Ch. 2 – The Girl Named Ella

Cinderella was just about to resume scrubbing the floor when the strange boy came looking for her. She wondered where he had come from. His haircut was much different than the current style, hanging around his face, with a little braid in back, and the clothes he had arrived in had been a little strange as well. Plus, they had been filthy and even stranger, singed – as if he had been in a fire – but he had cleaned himself up and changed his clothes for some he had found in the wardrobe.

"Ella," he called, then stopped and looked apologetic. "I hope you don't mind," he said, gesturing to the clothes he was wearing that had once belonged to her father. "I don't have anything else."

She was kneeling on the floor, the scrub brush and pail of water beside her. "It's fine," she said with a smile. "Though they are a little big on you," she said with a giggle.

Jim frowned and looked down. "You're right. But that's why I was about to go into town. See, I'm going to see if somebody could fix up my clothes." He shifted the bundle in his arms of the dirty singed clothes he had arrived in. "I was wondering if you would come with me." Cinderella looked at him with a look of utter astonishment that Jim took as a negative sign. "You know," he stumbled, "to show me around, since I've never been there before. And I need you to show me the way," he clarified.

Cinderella's utter surprise came from the idea of anyone asking her to accompany them anywhere, as if for the pleasure of her company. Her stepmother almost never let her go into town, and certainly not along with her – the girl's ragged clothes would make her an embarrassment, and she had nothing else to wear. She had no friends at all, except for the animals around the house and grounds that she had befriended. She had not been on a pleasure outing with a friend since before her father had died, and that was so long ago it seemed like a different lifetime.

Maybe that was why she had opened up to this strange boy about her father, and even told him her real name – because he was the first person in years she felt she might be able to talk to as a friend. She looked at the boy in happy surprise. "I would be happy to join you." Her stepmother could not punish her for going into town with the boy, because he himself had asked her to, and her stepmother's orders had been to do whatever he asked of her.

"Great," Jim said happily. "Let's go."

"Oh, but I haven't anything to wear," she said dismally, looking down at her ragged skirt, and thinking that the boy would be embarrassed to be seen with her.

Jim took her hand and lifted her off the floor. "What are you talking about?" he said, pulling her toward the door and not thinking about what he was saying. "You're beautiful."

He did not see Cinderella's blush, and he didn't realize what he had said until a minute later. He also realized he was still holding her hand, and let go quickly, but opened the front door for her.

As they walked out the door, a leg-height four-legged animal trotted up to Cinderella and began licking her hands wildly; the animal startled Jim even more badly than the cat, and he jumped back in alarm.

"It's just my dog, Bruno," Cinderella said happily, petting the dog as it panted and lolled its tongue. "This is Jim, Bruno," she said, directing the dog's attention to the boy. Jim flinched as the dog turned to him and started licking him wildly, covering him in slobber, and causing Cinderella to laugh.

Cinderella told Bruno to stay, then led Jim down the road through the woods and into the city. Jim could see now that the people of this world were still far too primitive to have space technology. When Lady Tremaine had mentioned a port, she undoubtedly had meant a sea port, and not a space port. They drove carriages driven by the large four-legged animals, and if this was their main means of transportation then there was no chance they had yet launched into space. His heart sunk at this. There was still the chance, however, that ships from other worlds might visit this planet. He would have to find out if the natives had any contact with other worlds, but he would have to do it subtly, to not give himself away if they were unaware of such things. In the meantime, he felt strangely at peace just wandering the city streets with the girl with the strange name, Cinderella.

Jim stopped in front of a tailor shop and said, "Why don't I go in here, and I'll meet up with you later?"

"Alright," Cinderella said. "I'll wander off and come find you here in a little while."

Jim took leave of her and went into the shop. He had had to split up from her because of the unorthodox methods he was about to use to have his clothes fixed up. "Morph," he whispered to the small creature, still hiding quietly in his pocket. "Peak out real subtle-like and watch the man at the counter there. See what their money looks like?" Morph nodded, seeming to catch his drift. "I need you to shape-shift to look like their money, and then after I use you to pay, you need to slip away when no one's watching and come find me again. But make sure no one sees you! Understood?"

Morph nodded enthusiastically at him. Jim was greatly thankful for Morph's useful shape-shifting abilities. He asked the man at the counter if he could fix his clothes, showing him the bundle of dirty, torn, and singed clothing he had crash-landed in. The man disappeared into the back room and returned an hour later, with Jim's clothes washed and stitched up nicely, looking about as new as they possibly could after the wear and tear of space travel. Jim could have bought new clothes, but his old clothes were the one remnant of his old world he had left, besides the map, and Morph of course.

Morph shifted into the shape of a large pile of coins in his hand, which he handed to the man at the counter. "Is this enough?"

"More than enough," the man said, handing a couple of coins back to Jim. Jim walked away to the front door of the store with his bag of repaired clothes, and waited a moment. Eventually a pink blob came zooming around the clothes racks and toward his hand, and rejoined with the few coins left there to form Morph. The little creature smiled and squeaked happily, floating above his hand.

"Great job, buddy!" Jim whispered.

"Great job! Great job!" Morph parroted happily.

"Yeah, now quick, get back in before someone sees you. They might not know about aliens yet." Morph flew obediently back into his right pocket. The treasure map was hidden in the left pocket.

"This is working out nicely," Jim said, lifting his bag of clothes and wandering away to find Cinderella.

Cinderella had been shocked to wander into the central square of town and find a massive crowd of people all looking devastated. They stood around, some sitting on the cobblestones, a few crying softly with others comforting them. She wondered in bewilderment what had happened. Then she noticed a thin mustachioed man in a palace costume standing on the platform in the middle of the square. He was holding an official-looking scroll in his hand, and looked quite depressed himself. She realized that the scroll must be a proclamation from the King, and this man was the Duke, who always read the proclamations to the townsfolk in the central square. She wondered what the King could have possibly proclaimed that would make people cry.

"Excuse me," she said, approaching the Duke atop the platform. "Sir, I'm afraid I arrived after you read it. Could you tell me what's happened?"

"Oh, it's alright, miss," said the bleary-eyed Duke, sniffing horribly. "I'll read it again for you, shall I?" He held up the scroll in his hands, standing up tall, and read in a loud official voice that reverberated around the square:

"His Royal Majesty Your King regrets to inform his people that his eldest son and heir to the throne, Prince Charmant, on his return voyage home after many months abroad, has been regrettably murdered by pirates."

"No," Cinderella gasped.

"The attack on his ship occurred this very morning, when the ship was not far from the harbor. All aboard were killed except for three men, who had the courage to run to the castle and inform the King of his son's death. The King's last living son, Prince Chartreuse, is now proclaimed heir to the throne. Long live the King." The Duke rolled up the scroll and fell silent. Cinderella stood in a horrified stupor. She did not understand why she felt this way. It was tragic that the young prince had been killed, murdered, while on his way home. Such nice things had always been said about him, and everyone had looked forward to having him as their future king. But Cinderella had never met him before, never even seen him. So why did she feel as if a part of her heart had just died?

"There's strange rumors about," an old woman in the crowd murmured to Cinderella, who barely registered what she was saying.

"Those aboard the ship who survived the pirate attack – they say strange things. They say the pirates weren't even human. They were strange creatures of all sorts, some with too many legs or arms, or too few, some like humongous insects, some with parts like machines. Like demons."

Cinderella sat down on the ground. She could not explain it, but she felt as if she had lost something forever, something that had been meant to be hers. She felt devastated, but did not cry. After all, she had never even known him.

"Ella?" a voice said behind her, and it startled her to hear that name; it had been so long since anyone else had used it. She turned around to see Jim, holding his bag of clothes, and looking concerned. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"It's the prince," she said, rising back to her feet. "He's died."

"That's awful," Jim said.

A few people in palace uniforms appeared next to the Duke and lowered a large square object wrapped in cloth. They set it down and pulled off the wrapping to reveal a large painting of a handsome dark-haired young man.

Cinderella gazed in awe at the painted eyes of the young man. "The King has said that whoever would like to leave flowers or gifts in the prince's memory," the Duke announced, "may leave them here, by his portrait."

Jim was watching Cinderella stare intently at the portrait. "Did you know him?" he asked.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "But you know, I have the strangest feeling that I did know him somehow. I almost feel as if I did know him. But that's impossible. How would I have ever met a prince?" she said with a little laugh. "No." She shook her head sadly. "I never knew him."

"How did he die?"

"He was murdered, by pirates."

"Pirates?" Jim gasped.

"Yes, but that woman was telling me that they weren't normal pirates," Cinderella said vaguely, still staring at the portrait. "She said they didn't look human; they were like monsters, some like giant insects, some with machine parts," she trailed off.

Machine parts! Jim knew that could only be the cyborg, Long John Silver. Cinderella did not notice the different expressions that passed over Jim's face. At first he felt immensely relieved, because the monster pirates must be his crewmates, and that meant they had survived their crash landing, and Silver himself had survived too, which was the greatest relief. And they were not too far away from him. But his relief faded quickly to horror that his crewmates had murdered the young prince, and, maybe what was worse to Jim, they had affected this girl in this way. Silver himself had been among them, maybe even led the attack. At that moment he couldn't believe he had ever called Silver his friend; he had looked up to him, even admired him, like a father. And now he saw that in truth he was a wicked murdering pirate. Then he felt ashamed that he had consorted with such pirates, called them his mates, and sailed with them. He himself could be called a pirate if he was honest with himself. Was he no better than them? He hoped Ella would never, ever learn of his past as a pirate, or his connection to the pirates who had murdered the prince; he intended to never let her find out.

"Here," Jim said, producing a bouquet of flowers from his bag. "I bought these for you," he said awkwardly, "but I think maybe you'd like to give them to him instead." He nodded to the portrait of the prince. He had purchased them with the same cheating way, having Morph shift into the form of money, but he had no intention of letting her learn about that either.

"Thank you," she said, smiling sadly, and taking the bouquet. She walked up to the portrait and lay the flowers gently before it. She took one last look into the prince's eyes, feeling they would haunt her forever, and then she turned back to Jim and walked away with him.

As they meandered the city streets, glancing in shop windows, Jim could tell that the death of the prince was troubling Cinderella, which was strange because she had never met him, and this troubled Jim for reasons not yet clear to him. They passed a shop window full of dresses and ball gowns, and Jim saw Cinderella's eyes linger on the window. "Come on," Jim said, laying a comforting hand on her arm. "Let's go look inside."

He watched her admire dress after dress, looking quite out of place in her sullied servant girl clothes. "Pick out your favorite," Jim said to her.

"Oh I couldn't possibly; they're all so beautiful." She stopped before a book lying on the counter, full of dress patterns. "Oh! I have this book at home! It was my mother's. I used to look through it when I was little." She flipped through it and stopped at a picture of a dress bedecked with ribbons and bows. "This was my favorite when I was little. My mother was going to make it for me someday." The sadness returned to her face.

"Is your mother with your father?" Jim asked gently, because she had not mentioned her mother before. Cinderella nodded sadly, and Jim felt horrid, imagining how he would be able to manage without his own mother. Being deprived of one parent was bad enough, but at least then there was still one left with you. He could not imagine having both taken from him.

"I'll buy this dress for you," Jim said eagerly, looking at the picture. "Pick your favorite color, and I'll have them make it for you."

"What?" Cinderella looked at him with startled eyes. "No, I can't pay for it."

"I just said I'd buy it for you! You don't have to worry about paying."

"But," she said in confusion, "why would you do that?"

"As a present," Jim said with a shrug.

"I couldn't accept," she said. "I have nothing to give back to you."

"I think you're missing the point of a gift," he laughed. "I don't want anything back for it."

"That's very kind of you, Jim, but I'm afraid I couldn't accept a gift like that." She lay the book down on the counter and walked away, flustered. Jim subtly took the book and approached the man at the counter.

"Sir," he said, showing him the picture of Cinderella's favorite dress. "Could you make this dress for my friend over there? As a surprise."

"Certainly," the shop owner replied. "In what color?"

Jim grimaced and tried to think like a girl. "Uh, pink," he answered.

"Yes, pink," the man said pensively, stroking his moustache. "With white trimming. It will look lovely. Shall I deliver it your friend when it's finished?"

"That would be great."

"Write down the name and address." He slid over a pencil and notepad to Jim. He wrote down "Ella, The Tremaine house," and hoped he had spelled it right.

"I'll have it finished in a few weeks," the man said. "And then have it delivered. As for price…"

Jim felt Morph in his pocket morphing into the biggest pile of coins yet, and pulled out the heap to show the man. "This should cover it," he said firmly, for he really didn't have much idea about the worth of their money. "Keep the change, and I expect an extra good job for it."

"Agreed, good man," the shopowner said enthusiastically, taking the heap of coins that was not really what it seemed to be.

Jim meandered away through the shop and stood hidden behind a rack of dresses, and waited a few minutes until the shopowner had stowed the heap of coins in a drawer and disappeared into a back room. In that moment, the drawer opened by itself and a pink blob zoomed out. It spotted Jim, flew over, and dived into his pocket, where he felt it doing somersaults and gurgling happily to itself.

"Thanks, Morph, " he said. Morph squeaked. "Well, I do feel a little guilty actually," Jim replied, "but I guess I am a pirate, after all. But I plan on paying him back. You'll see, I'll stop by one day and put some real money back in that box. With interest. That should clear my conscience."

He walked out of the shop to find Cinderella admiring several carts where food vendors were showing off their delicacies: cheeses, strings of sausages, candied apples and cakes. Using the same trick, he bought enough food for both him and Cinderella to have a picnic lunch, and Morph managed to find his way back to Jim's pocket without any bystanders noticing. If they did notice, they would dismiss the flying pink blob as a trick of their imagination. Jim was grateful sometimes how dismissive and unimaginative adults could be; they wouldn't notice the strange and unusual if it ran up their leg and bit them.

Though she wouldn't accept such an expensive gift as a dress, Cinderella was happy to be treated to lunch, and thanked Jim profusely. They sat themselves on the edge of a trickling wishing fountain in one of the city squares, and split the food equally between the two of them. Cinderella playfully scolded Jim for biting into his candied apple before the main course, and Jim flushed and set it back down only to then look up and see Cinderella biting into her caramel apple with a huge grin on her face. They both laughed. Jim found it strange that this girl on an alien planet light year away from his home was the first person his own age who he had felt able to talk to in years.

They were halfway through their meal and chatting happily when Jim heard familiar voices behind them, and grimaced. "Mother, mother, look," a girl's whiny voice was saying. "Is that – Mother, is that Cinderella? Out in the town?"

"And in those clothes?" and equally whiny voice said. "Oh, what a disgrace!"

"Cinderella," a woman's scornful voice called over the fountain, and Jim watched Cinderella's smile disappear as she turned and saw Lady Tremaine, accompanied by her two daughters, laden with bags full of new clothes. They were clearly out on a shopping trip.

Cinderella rose to her feet quickly as the woman stood before her.

"Cinderella," the woman said in a voice so low it was frightening. "What are you doing out in public, looking like this-" She batted the girl's ragged skirt in disgust. "Have you no shame, child? And surely you haven't finished your chores already." Jim could tell that the woman was holding back the full blunt of her anger while they were out in public. "I give you nourishment and a roof over your head and this is how you repay me," the woman said very quietly and dangerously. "You will go straight home this very instant, and, so help me, when I get back home I will have such a list of chores for you -"

"Please, ma'am," Jim said, forcing himself between Cinderella and the tall terrifying woman. "She's only here because I asked her to accompany me. I ordered her, in fact. I needed someone to guide me into town, and you did say that if I needed anything, I should ask her. So you see, she isn't disobeying your orders at all."

"Oh," the woman said, taken aback. "Well, I see, Mr. Hawkins. Please forgive me. I hope you're enjoying your visit to our town."

"I was," Jim retorted.

"Well, we'll see you back at the house for dinner, then?"

Jim nodded curtly. "Yes, thank you."

"Wonderful. Come along, girls." Lady Tremaine glided away. Her two daughters followed behind her, while looking back at Jim, waving and giggling, batting their eyelashes conspicuously. Jim was steaming furiously, and didn't look back at Cinderella until the awful trio had disappeared around a corner. The girl looked very distraught.

"Don't worry about her," Jim said. "She has no right to treat you like that. In fact, if I was you, I would quit working for her and go find someplace else to work. I doubt anybody could be as awful as her to work for."

"Maybe you're right," Cinderella said quietly. He could feel she was holding something back, but he didn't pry.

Jim decided on his next course of action. "If we go home now," he said, "I can show you something that will cheer you up for sure."

Cinderella looked at him, and he saw the sparkle had returned to her blue eyes; it was so hard to find sometimes, but when it shown it shown like starlight. "I can't wait," she said, and they made their way back to the Tremaine house.


	3. The Treasure Map

Ch.3 – The Treasure Map

Cinderella felt the happiest she had felt in ages. She always had her animal friends to talk to, especially the mice, but they could not exactly keep up the conversation like a human being could. Cinderella could not actually remember ever having a friend her own age to talk to, and now, here was this strange boy, completely out of nowhere, as if in answer to her deepest wish.

Jim had changed back into the clothes he had arrived in, and returned her father's clothes to the wardrobe upstairs. Lady Tremaine and her daughters had not come home from town yet, so Jim and Cinderella sat in the luxurious parlor, making themselves comfortable.

Cinderella spotted her mice friends, Jaq and Gus, watching curiously as they hid beneath the lowest stair. "It's alright," she called to them. "Come out! I want you to meet my friend, Jim."

Jim looked in confusion to see who she was talking to, and was surprised to see the two mice cautiously approaching from under the stairs. Cinderella pulled out a piece of cheese from her pocket that she had saved, broke it into two, and held it out for them. "You can thank Jim for that!" she said to them. "These are my little friends, Jaq and Gus," she said to Jim with a giggle.

"A pleasure to meet the both of you," Jim said with a flourishing bow to the mice, a grin on his face. "I have someone to introduce to you too," he said. "That's what I wanted to show you. Come on, Morph," he said, reaching into his pocket. Morph shied deeper in. "It's alright," he said, coaxing gently. "We can trust Ella."

Morph peaked out of his pocket to look shyly at Cinderella, who gasped in surprise. He then flew out of the pocket and into the air, zooming in pink circles around Cinderella's head and squawking happily. "Oh!" Cinderella threw up her hands in amazement as the pink blob circled her. Finally he ceased, landed on her shoulder, and nudged her cheek. Cinderella laughed delightedly. "What on earth is it?"

"He's Morph," Jim said happily. "He's my friend."

Morph hovered before Cinderella and morphed into a mirror, reflecting her own face. Cinderella gasped. "He's magical!" He morphed into a flower, a butterfly, and finally into a miniature version of Cinderella, perched on her finger. Cinderella gazed in amazement at her own miniature form staring back at her. Then he flew down to the floor next to the mice and morphed into a mouse as well. Jaq and Gus were surprised, but greeted him warmly.

"He's wonderful," Cinderella said. "The most wonderful thing I've ever seen."

"He can't morph into anything big," Jim explained. "It's too much of a strain on him. But small things, he's amazing at."

Morph returned to his pink blob form and gurgled happily, and Cinderella tore her eyes away from him and looked at Jim. "Jim," she said, "where are you from?"

Jim had been afraid that showing Morph to her would cause too many questions. "Far away," he answered, looking at her intently.

"What city?"

Jim chuckled. "I'll put it this way; you're asking the wrong question."

"What country, then?"

Jim leaned back on his sofa and put his arms up behind his head, looking at her smugly. "Still not far enough."

"Jim," Cinderella said, her voice wavering, "I'm half-afraid to know the truth."

Jim could think of nothing to say, but only gazed at her with a look that beseeched her to accept him without questioning. Cinderella returned his gaze, but the moment was broken by the slam of the front door and the loud noise of bickering girls. Morph and the mice darted to hide under the stairs.

"Drisella, I told you to stop pulling my hair-" Anastasia was whining, and then both girls and their mother stopped abruptly to see Cinderella and Jim sitting contently in the parlor before them. Cinderella sprung to her feet, and Jim followed her example.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hawkins," Lady Tremaine said coldly with a nod of her head. "I trust the guest room is to your liking?"

"It's lovely," Jim replied, equally coldly. "As is all of your house."

"I'm glad. We'll have dinner at six, if you care to join us. The dinner, however, will not make itself," she said, turning her eyes to Cinderella.

Cinderella took the suggestion and headed toward the kitchen, eyes lowered to the floor. She felt Jim's eyes watch her go. "We'll see you shortly at dinner then, Mr. Hawkins," she heard her stepmother say curtly, and then the woman followed behind her like a vulture, toward the kitchen. Her two stepsisters followed their mother, sensing something exciting to watch was about to happen. When they had all entered the kitchen, leaving Jim alone in the parlor, Lady Tremaine shut the door behind her.

The woman stared imperiously at her down the hook of her nose, standing tall and intimidating, and let her terrifying gaze pierce the girl for several moments before speaking. "If you think for one minute," she said, in a low voice, pregnant with threat, "that I don't see what you're up to, you are much mistaken."

"I don't know what you mean, Stepmother," she entreated.

"Quiet," the woman snapped, taking a step forward, causing Cinderella to take a step back nervously. "You are spending much too much time with our young house guest," she continued. "If you are hoping to make him fall in love with you-" she said, putting a frightful sneer on the word "love."

"I wasn't-" Cinderella interrupted pleadingly.

"Silence!" the woman barked. "If you are hoping to make him fall for you, and hoping that he will take you away from here, you can forget that idea at once. You will never, ever leave this house. You can give up all hope of it. So can you stop following that boy around and get back to your chores. Am I quite clear?"

"Yes, Stepmother," she answered quietly, looking down at her feet.

"You mustn't think I'm being harsh, Cinderella," the woman said, stepping beside her. "I'm telling you this for your own good, so you don't get hurt. Because the idea is too ridiculous to even contemplate." She pulled a handful of the girl's ragged patched skirt, waving it in the air. "As if he could ever fall in love," she said, dropping the skirt and gesturing up and down the girl's body, "with this."

The woman turned and walked away, leaving Cinderella staring at the floor. She was focusing all her energy on holding back her tears until the others had left the room, so at least they would not have the pleasure of seeing her cry. Her two stepsisters who had been watching delightedly in the corner followed their mother. "Mother," Anastasia said, "may one of us have the boy?"

"No, girls. He is obviously just a poor traveling orphan with no family. I'll be surprised if he even manages to produce the rent money." She looked at her daughters and wagged a finger at them. "I better not catch either one of you pursuing him. He's much too far below your status. It would not become you."

"Don't say that about Jim!" Cinderella shouted suddenly, holding up her face as the tears escaped from the corners of her eyes. She knew she should not have spoken, but she could not let the wicked woman defile her one human friend in the entire world. He had spoken up for her, and now she must do the same for him.

Her stepmother's look of surprise changed quickly to fury, and her stepsisters, obviously surprised by her outburst as well, looked at each other with grins of anticipation. The tall woman walked toward Cinderella; the look of menace on her face was terrifying. "I'll teach you respect, girl," she said darkly. Cinderella stumbled back in fear, knocking her head against the pans hanging from the rack on the ceiling. Several pans clattered to the floor, reverberating through the house.

Jim had been waiting worriedly in the parlor, but had been satisfied to wait since he had not heard any yelling or any sounds at all coming from the kitchen. But when the clattering noise echoed through the house, he leapt toward the kitchen and threw open the door.

"If I ever get any backtalk from you again-" the woman was threatening the girl, who was backed against the wall in fear.

"Hey!" Jim shouted. "Step away from her!" Lady Tremaine looked at him in shock, her finger still poised in the air before Cinderella's face. Her two daughters were watching as closely as if it had been a play. "You have no right to talk to her like that!" Jim shouted, holding up his own finger in a threatening gesture at the woman.

"Mr. Hawkins," the woman retorted, standing tall and facing him, "Not that this is any of your business, but I think a stepmother has every right to discipline her own stepdaughter – the duty, even, to teach her what's right and wrong, and," she said, looking coldly at Cinderella, "to respect her elders."

Jim stared dumbfounded; he felt as if Lady Tremaine's words had been a pail of cold water thrown in his face. "She's your daughter?" he asked in shock.

"Stepdaughter," Lady Tremaine corrected.

"You treat her like a servant," Jim said, voicing his confused thoughts aloud. "You treat her nothing like your own daughters."

"My parenting methods are none of your concern, young Mr. Hawkins – as if you would have any experience on the subject. But even you must know that children who disobey must be punished," she snapped, holding up her chin in the air, "for their own good."

"And this?" Jim asked, glancing at the house around them. "Is this her house? Her mother and father's house?"

"Her father," the woman replied coldly, "my beloved second husband, unfortunately passed away, leaving the house in my possession, as a house should pass from a husband to his wife."

"You've stolen everything from her," Jim said angrily, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I have done nothing that goes against my conscience, and certainly nothing against the law," the woman replied. "So if you are troubled by the way I run my own household, I'm afraid the only thing you can do about it is to leave and seek room and board elsewhere." She glared at him down her hooked nose. "You can produce your day's worth of rent fee and be gone."

"That won't be necessary," Jim said, backing down. He realized he could not get himself kicked out of the house and leave Cinderella alone in this woman's power. "I apologize, Lady Tremaine," he said, looking down. "I'm a foreigner, as you know, and your customs here are unfamiliar to me. I shouldn't have been so quick to jump to conclusions. I'd like to stay here." He looked up at her. "If you let me."

The woman examined him a moment with her cruel glare. "Of course, Mr. Hawkins," she said. She turned to the girl, who had remained silent and tearful through the entire encounter. "Cinderella," she said. "You may go to your room. Anastasia and Drisella and I will make dinner tonight."

"But Mother!" the other girls cried.

"Shush!" she snapped at them. "You may go, Cinderella, to your room." Cinderella walked out of the room, head bowed, and Jim knew he could not follow her under her stepmother's watchful eye. She disappeared up the staircase, to her lonely bare attic room at the top of the house, and Jim was left alone with the awful stepsisters and stepmother. The two girls tried to flirt with him until their mother began issuing them orders on how to cook the meal. A while later, Jim ate an awkwardly silent dinner with the three of them, and Cinderella did not come down for dinner, nor did Lady Tremaine make any mention of her the rest of the night. After thanking them for the meal, Jim said he would go to his room for the night, excused himself, and escaped.

He of course meant to go talk to Cinderella, but he did know where her room was. Jaq and Gus appeared before him on the staircase, and Morph floated out behind them. "Hello there," Jim said. "Any chance you could show me to Ella's room?" The mice looked delighted at that, and scurried away. He followed them to a very tall twisting staircase, crooked and looking about to collapse at any moment, with a single door at the top. The mice and Morph stayed behind, while Jim trod up the staircase slowly and knocked gently at the door.

"Ella," he called quietly. "Ella, please talk to me."

The door opened and there she was, her blue eyes red and bleary, but dry. "Jim," she said with a smile.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course." She opened the door wider for him, and he entered. It was the most depressing room he had ever been in, with little more than a very thin bed with a mattress that the straw was falling out of, a rusty tub and washbowl, and a nightgown that was the only other article of clothing the girl owned.

Jim sat down on the bed, taking Cinderella's hands and pulling her down to the bed beside him. "Ella," he said, "why didn't you tell me this was your house, and these people your family? I thought you were just employed here as a servant. When you talked about your mother and father, I thought you must have a home someplace else. I had no idea this was your home. I didn't know that woman was your stepmother," he said angrily. "How could I? She doesn't treat you anything like a mother should treat her daughter."

"I should have told you," she said, looking away. "I just thought that I shouldn't talk about things like that to someone I just met. I didn't think you'd want to hear it."

Jim had forgotten they had just met that morning. He felt that he knew her well enough already that they could have been friends for years.

"It's alright," he said. "I've kept secrets from you as well. A lot bigger secrets."

"Where are you from, Jim?" she asked him for the second time, her blue sparkling eyes settled on him.

"Where do you think I'm from?" he asked.

"Before you arrived this morning," she said, "I saw a shooting star, and it must have landed not a mile away. I could see the smoke coming up from the ground where it landed. And not an hour later, you stumbled into the house. And your clothes were burnt. And, what's more, you arrived at the same time that the wicked pirates did. The ones who killed the prince – the monsters they're talking about. The woman in town said they were like demons from hell. I think," she said, smiling at him, "that maybe you are an angel, fallen down from heaven, sent to stop them."

Jim laughed. "Trust me, I wouldn't be much good against those pirates."

"Then you're an angel sent here to me," she went on, "in answer to my prayers."

"No," he said. "I'm not an angel. I'm just a kid. I came here by accident."

"It wasn't an accident," Cinderella said, and she seemed so sure of herself as she said it, that she half-convinced Jim. "You were sent here to me, even if you don't know it. You were meant to end up here."

Jim looked at her doubtfully. "You really think so?"

"I know it," she said, holding her hand to her heart, "not in my head, but in here."

He smiled. "Maybe you're right then. It's more than I've got to go on." He broke his eyes away from her and looked down at the floor, hunched over his knees in thought. "The room I'm staying in," he thought aloud, "it's your room, isn't it? The room you had when you were a little girl."

"Yes," she said with a smile.

He sighed. Then he turned to her and took her hands in his. "Ella, come away with me," he entreated her. "Leave this place. I know it's your house by rights, but there's nothing left for you here. Come with me back to my home, far far away from all this. My mother and I, we're not rich by any means; I'm sorry, it's all I have. But it's enough for us. My mom and I, I mean. She could be your mother too, Ella. She'd love to have you. You'd love her; I know it."

"You really mean it?" Cinderella asked, gripping his hands. "I could come live with you?"

"Yes," he said. "Say yes, Ella. Say you will. I won't leave you here with that evil woman."

Cinderella's eyes brimmed with tears once again, but this time she was smiling. "Yes," she said, her voice trembling with happiness, "yes, I'll go with you."

Jim grinned. "That's great."

Cinderella laughed through her tears and shook her head. "But you haven't even told me where you live yet."

"I'll show you," Jim said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the map to Treasure Planet, the mysterious puzzle orb. He twisted it quickly in his hands before Cinderella could even ask what it was, and then a bright light burst out of the orb in his hands, filling the room around them. Glittering stars hung around their heads, and trade routes and interstellar highways criss-crossed through the air.

"What is it?" Cinderella cried in awe, her eyes sparkling with reflections of the stars.

"It's a map," Jim answered, "of the entire galaxy." He leaped up on the bed and pointed to one of the miniature orbs floating near the ceiling. "See this planet, orbiting this star?" he said. "That's my home, Ella. The planet Montressor." Her eyes widened, awestruck. "That's where I'm from," he said.

"And where are we at now?" she asked.

"Well, let's see, this planet is called Earth, right? I keep hear people saying 'what on Earth,' so I'm just assuming-" As he said the word Earth, the model of the galaxy floating around them zoomed in, stars streaking around their heads, and resettled on a different arm of the spiral galaxy. One of the miniature orbs lighted up. "It must be that one," Jim said, pointing to it. "That's where you're from."

"But it's so far away from where you live," Cinderella said, distraught by even this miniature model of something so mind-boggling and inconceivably huge.

"It is far," Jim said. "But not if you've got the right ship."

"We can get there in a ship?"

"Not one of your ships," he explained. "A space ship. Same basic concept though. That's how I came here, on a ship. We ran into a black hole – that's like a giant whirlpool in space – and we came out over your planet, and our ship crashed into it. I escaped on a lifeboat. My lifeboat was what you saw crash not far away from here. I was that shooting star you saw," he said with a grin and a little shrug.

"I knew it," Cinderella said, returning the grin. "But, how can we get to your planet if your ship crashed? There aren't any ships on our planet that can take us up there." She pointed up through the ceiling.

"Well, that's the problem at the moment," Jim said. "It's possible the ship survived the crash enough to be repaired. I just have to find it. I could probably repair it if I tried, and I definitely could repair it if I had my crewmates to help. So I need to find them, and find the ship."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know," Jim said, looking up at the vast, slowly spinning model of the galaxy, drifting in spirals around their heads. "It makes you think how small we are, doesn't it?" he mused. "Out in something this big."

"That's why I know that you were sent here, and not just an accident," Cinderella said surely. "Because the chances of you finding me by accident, in all of that?" She looked up at the model of the galaxy. "It's not very likely, is it?"

"You've almost got me convinced," Jim conceded. "Almost."

"Where were you headed," she asked, "in your ship, before you crashed here?"

Jim laughed. "We were headed to Treasure Planet."

"Treasure Planet?" she asked. The galaxy model was already zooming in on another sector of space, where a large double-ringed planet lit up.

"Said to be the hidden place of all the treasure of Captain Flint," Jim said. "When Billy Bones gave me this map, I convinced my mother to let me go and try to find the treasure. Well, we didn't find it, but-" He turned his gaze from the stars to Cinderella, listening entranced. "But I found something else."

Cinderella blushed. "You still might find Treasure Planet yet," she replied. "Maybe I'll even go with you to find it," she said with a laugh.

"Yeah. Maybe," Jim said with a grin. He sat back down on the bed to think. "I'm going to have to go and find my crewmates and the ship," he said. "Hopefully they'll be close by." Jim had neglected to tell her that his crewmates were in fact the 'monster' pirates who had murdered the prince. He hoped she would never discover that uncomfortable connection. He would let the demon pirates remain a mystery to her, and hopefully she would not ask about it.

Anyways, it would not be them he would be looking for. He would be looking for Captain Amelia and his friend Delbert, and between the three of them he thought there was a good chance of repairing the ship, assuming it had crashed on land somewhere. If it had crashed into the ocean, or somewhere else where they would never find it, they would just have to build a new one. Though the technology on this planet was a few centuries behind space exploration, they had enough technology that Jim and his friends would be able to construct a small ship with just enough power to get them into space, and hopefully to the nearest spaceport, or at least close enough that another ship would pick them up. Jim was good enough at building things that he was sure he would be able to build a small ship if it came down to it; it would just take a lot longer.

"We'll leave then," Cinderella said, "and go find them."

"No, I want you to stay here while I go look for them, so that you'll be safe. When I've found my crewmates and the ship, I'll come back for you. If I can't find the ship, I'll have to build another one, but hopefully I'll have my crewmates to help. But promise me that you'll stay here and stay safe until I come back for you."

"Jim, I want to come with you," she pleaded. "I wouldn't be much help repairing or building a ship, but I could help you find your way around. You hardly know anything about this world. You need me."

"I know enough about it already," he argued. "It's almost the same as my own world. The most important thing to people is money, and people who have it are in charge. People without it get walked all over. I've seen how it works. I'm sad to tell you it works pretty much the same on every world I've been on."

"That's why you were looking for Treasure Planet," Cinderella said.

"I just wanted to make things better, for my mother and I. But now I'm going to make things better for you too. You'll be much, much happier living with me and my mom. I promise."

"I don't think I can bear to just sit here and wait for you," Cinderella said wretchedly. "What if you don't come back? What if I never know what's become of you?"

"Ella." Jim got down on his knees on the floor and looked up at her, holding her hands in his. "I swear to you: I will come back for you. But I don't know how long I'll be gone. Even if something happens, and it takes longer than I thought, if you wait here long enough then someday I will come. There's no way I'm leaving this planet without you. If it took me forever, I'd come back for you. But are you willing to wait?"

"I would wait for eternity," Cinderella said.

Jim felt as if he was on fire, looking up at her starlit eyes; without thinking he let his head come in closer to hers. He was still holding the map, and as he was leaning in toward her, the orb was pushed closed in his hands, and the ethereal galaxy hanging around them was suddenly drawn back into the orb, which clicked shut, and the room around them returned to dreary ordinary reality. The moment was abruptly broken. "I'll leave now," Jim said, standing up, and stowing the map back in his pocket. "The sooner I leave, the sooner I'll come back."

"Alright," she agreed.

"Do you think you can manage dealing with that evil old hag and the two dancing monkeys while I'm gone?"

Cinderella smiled mischievously. "I'll give them one last good hoorah and make them miss me when I'm gone."

"That's what I like to hear," Jim approved. "I have to go tell them that I'm leaving. But I'll tell them that I'll come back later to give them the rent money. That way I'll have an excuse to come back. Anyways, the truth is I haven't got a coin on me at the moment."

"Another thing we have in common," Cinderella laughed.

"Wait here while I go talk to your stepmother."

"Alright."

Jim backed out of the room, closing the door gently behind him, Cinderella's eyes glued to him as he disappeared from her sight. As he walked down the stairs Morph flew out from beneath a stair and circled around him before diving back into this pocket. The mice stayed in their hiding spot beneath the stair, watching Jim walk away. Jim followed the sound of screeching singing and a poorly played flute to find the stepmother coaching her daughter's music lessons, in a grand window-lit room. Lucifer pounced out of a corner and hissed at him, and he kicked the cat out of the way, before entering the room with a scowl.

"May I help you, Mr. Hawkins?" the woman asked, as her daughters fell abruptly silent and smiled conspicuously at him.

"I'm afraid that business calls me away from your lovely home," Jim said, putting on his best air of formality. "Thank you very much for your hospitality. I haven't got the rent money on me now, but I'll return in a few days to pay you. You have my word."

"Very well. I hope you've enjoyed your stay here."

"I have. Best wishes to you, and all three of your daughters," Jim said, putting a subtle emphasis on the word "three."

Lady Tremaine's mouth opened, but remained silent. Jim gave a low bow to the three of them, an intense glare on his face. Then he left the room in silence. As he walked down the hallway, he heard Drisella say, "Mother, you're letting him just leave without paying rent? What is this, a charity we're running?"

"Drisella, I'm sure it would do me no good to push for the money," he heard her mother reply. "The boy obviously hasn't got a penny to his name; I can't make him cough it up just by pounding on his back."

"Next time," he heard Anastasia say, "let's rent out the room to a boy more of our status."

"Yes," Drisella replied. "I won't miss that one anyways. He seemed more interested in Cinderella than us! I can't imagine why."

Jim stormed down the hallways, down the stairs, and to the front door. He had no possessions to pack and take with him – only Morph in one pocket and the map in the other. He knew Cinderella was expecting him to come back up to her room to say good-bye, but he wasn't going to put the two of them through a painful farewell. It would be easier if he just disappeared. That way, if something happened to him and he really didn't come back, maybe she could get on with her life easier. He shut the front door behind him and walked away down the road and through the gates. He was out on the main road when he heard the door open and slam behind him, and footsteps running after him.

"Jim!" Cinderella shouted, and he turned to see her running toward him, her dark blonde hair flying. She skidded to halt in the dirt before him. "You were just going to leave without saying good-bye?" she asked furiously.

"I'm not any good at good-byes," Jim said.

"Well, good-bye then. But don't forget me."

"Ella, if I traveled the entire galaxy, saw the Seven Wonders of the Universe, and found Treasure Planet, this is the one world I would never forget." He fished out the map from his pocket and pressed the orb into her hands. "Keep this for me until I come back. Watch; this is how you open it. You can look at it and pick out all the worlds you want to see after I take you home with me."

"Oh, Jim," she said, pressing the orb to her heart.

"Morph," Jim called, and the little pink creature flew out of his pocket. "I want you to stay with Ella until I come back. Help her out as much as you can, and keep her safe." Morph nodded enthusiastically, and dived into the pocket of Cinderella's skirt.

"Now you won't forget me," Jim said to her.

"I'll keep them both safe," Cinderella said, putting the map in her other pocket. "But I haven't got anything to give you, except-" She leaned over and pecked a kiss on his cheek. Jim flushed red; nobody had ever given him one of those except his mother.

"I'll remember you for sure," he laughed awkwardly. "Well, I guess, good-bye then."

"Good-bye."

Jim took a few steps backward, turned around slowly, and walked away, still glancing back at her.

"Remember, you promise to come back," Cinderella called, standing by the gate.

"I always keep my promises," Jim called back, and walked away down the road, toward the city, and the shimmering white castle on the hilltop in the distance. Cinderella watched him walk away until he had rounded the corner and disappeared from view, and she wished with all her heart that it was not the last time she would see him.


	4. Finding Cinderella

Ch. 4 - Finding Cinderella

Jim listened everywhere for rumors of the strange monster pirates; if he found them, hopefully he would find Captain Amelia and Delbert, and the ship. He talked to some sailors he found in a tavern, whose directions took him to the sea port. The alien pirates had commandeered the prince's ship the day they had killed him, and they had been using it to prey on ships around the sea port ever since. Jim knew that piracy on the sea would be little different than piracy in space, and he doubted the pirates would care either way as long as there was loot to be taken.

Jim figured that the space ship must have crashed somewhere near, and hopefully Amelia and Delbert as well, so he spent days searching the surrounding forest and farmland, inquiring everyone he met if they had seen a falling star crash nearby. Finally a farmer on the very outskirts of the kingdom told him that the biggest falling star he had ever seen had landed within walking distance, but no one had gone to investigate it because it was outside the kingdom's boundaries, and in truth they were afraid of it.

Jim followed the man's directions, climbed to the top of a hill, and saw below him a massive crater carved into the ground, and within it – to his delight – the wreckage of the R.L.S. Legacy. He scrambled down toward it, but was suddenly flung to the ground by a pair of unseen arms.

"Stay away from our ship, you despicable moral-deprived pirate-" a familiar voice said, and Jim saw the tip of a blaster gun pointed at him before flinching and looking away. The blaster gun dropped. "Jim?" the familiar voice said in amazement.

"Geez, Captain, I thought you were going to shoot me," Jim said happily. Captain Amelia smiled at him, and reached down a hand to help him up.

"Delbert, it's Jim!" Amelia called out, clapping a hand on Jim's back.

"Jim?" a voice shouted incredulously.

"Yes, Jim Hawkins. You know, the cabin boy, your young friend."

"Yes, I know who he is!" Delbert shouted as he burst out of the trees. He ran happily to Jim and squeezed him in a hug, which Jim happily returned.

"We didn't know if you were dead or lost, Mr. Hawkins," Captain Amelia said. "We're glad to see you; that's the least that can be said."

"I'm glad to find you and the ship in one place," Jim laughed. "And one piece."

"The ship survived the crash rather well," Amelia said, gesturing toward the wreckage. "It only needs minor repairs before we can launch, but it will take some time with just the three of us to fix her up space-worthy again."

"Amelia and I have been doing the best we can," Delbert said. "And I'm sure we can fix her up faster with you here now. The only thing is, we've been terrified those rapscallion pirates are going to arrive any moment and kill us. They must be looking for the ship too. It's only a matter of time before they find us here and want to take the thing for themselves."

"Then we better get moving," Jim said. "Will we be able to fly the ship without the crew, though?"

"Oh yes, three will be sufficient," Amelia said.

"Make that four," Jim said.

"What?" Amelia and Delbert said together, looking at him.

"I've, um, made a friend."

"Heavens, Jim, we've been on this planet three days and you're already picking up people to tag along," Delbert said in disbelief.

"She's coming with us," Jim said firmly, glaring at the two of them with a stubborn challenging look.

"Oh, so it's a she," Amelia said. "That explains it."

"You're not leaving this planet without her," Jim said, "because she has the map."

"The map?" Delbert shouted in alarm. "You gave her the map to Treasure Planet?"

"I did," Jim said, grinning smugly.

Captain Amelia stood, hands on her hips, in thought. "Well Jim, you've certainly made yourself a strong position. I suppose we've got room for another," she conceded. "If she's here when we're ready to launch, I don't see a problem with it. I always said space could use another woman or two out in it."

"Thank you, Captain," Jim said in relief.

The three of them spent the next few days repairing the ship, which was easy enough, with Jim's knowledge of fixing things and the Captain's knowledge specifically of her own ship, and even Delbert picked things up quickly. It was slow going, however, with just the three of them, and having to take turns to scavenge for food. They stole crops from the surrounding farmland on the edge of the kingdom, and no one noticed. They patched the solar sails, repaired the rudder and steering mechanisms, and fixed the rocket propellers. After a week they rebooted the engine, and Captain Amelia announced that when it was finished warming up, which would take about a day, they would be ready to launch.

"I have to go and get Ella," Jim pleaded to Amelia and Delbert. "I'll go now and bring her here. Then we can launch."

"Very well, Mr. Hawkins," Amelia said, rolling her eyes. "Go fetch your bonnie lass, and be back here tomorrow in time for an early start, alright?"

"Aye, Captain."

"Don't worry," Amelia said, in a friendlier voice. "We won't launch without you."

Jim raced across the farmland, through the forest, and back through the city. By the end of the day he reached the Tremaine house, and knocked on the door, heaving for breath. He had expected Cinderella to answer the door, and was surprised and dismayed when the door opened to reveal Lady Tremaine.

"So nice to see you again, Mr. Hawkins," she said, scowling down at him.

"Ma'am," he said. "Could I speak to Ella, please? I'm sorry I don't have the rent money yet," he added, remembering he hadn't paid yet for his stay. "But I'll have it very soon. Could I please see Ella?"

"You mean Cinderella? Well I'm sorry, child," the woman said, feigning regret, but obviously enjoying herself. "She isn't here anymore."

"Where is she?" Jim demanded.

"I've sent her to work at the palace," she answered. "They're hiring help, and Cinderella has gone to work there a while."

"The palace?" Jim said in dismay.

"Yes."

Jim said not another word to the woman, but turned around and ran back the way he had come from. He raced out the front gates and back toward the city, toward the tall white glistening palace on the hilltop.

Lady Tremaine closed the door with a sneer. "That will delay that little brat awhile," she said to herself. "Send him on the wrong trail." She walked off with a look of triumph.

Jac, Gus, and Morph had been watching from their peephole in the wall. As soon as they had seen Jim, they had scurried quickly through their secret pathways through the house and out into the back yard. Jaq and Gus ran quickly up to Cinderella, who was pulling weeds, and began jumping up and down in frenzy, trying to convey to her that Jim was at the front door.

"What?" Cinderella asked, looking at them curiously. "Go slower, I can't understand." Morph flew up to her and transformed into a miniature figure of Jim, hovering before her face. "Jim is here?" she gasped. She rose to her feet and ran to the house, through the hallways, and arrived at the front door. Jaq, Gus, and Morph hurried after her.

But by the time she reached the front door, it was too late. Jim was already gone.

Only her stepmother was there, waiting for her. "Oh good, Cinderella," she said. "I was just about to come tell you that you can stop picking weeds now. The floor needs a good scrubbing again." She smiled slyly.

In truth, Lady Tremaine had seen Jim approaching the house, and had ordered Cinderella to go pick weeds in the back yard so that she would not see him. She kept a watchful eye on Cinderella the rest of the evening, as she scrubbed the floor diligently.

Cinderella fought to keep in her tears. It had been only a week since Jim had left, but she missed him already. She had no idea where Jim had gone to; she had not even seen the direction he had left in. Her stepmother did not mention the incident at all, but Cinderella knew she had lied to him, and sent him looking elsewhere for her, following a false trail. But she didn't know where. Would he come back for her? Would he realize where she was? Her heart said yes, but only time would tell – cold, cruel time, which loved to torture people by making them wait. Cinderella would gladly wait the rest of her life for the chance she might see him again.

Jim arrived at the royal palace late that night. He was not admitted through the front doors, but followed some servants around the back to the servants' quarters.

"Excuse me, sir," he asked a large middle-aged man in a servant's uniform, who was carrying something inside. "I'm looking for a girl who works here. She just started working here. Her name is Ella, or Cinderella. Do you know her?"

"Lad," the man replied gruffly. "I've had too many young lads like yourself chasing after servant girls. They're paid to work, not flirt. I wouldn't let you inside even if I knew which young damsel it was you were after." He wiped sweat from his brow and looked at Jim. "You'll only get into trouble chasing after a palace servant girl, and yours sounds like trouble from the start, going by such a funny name as Cinderella."

"It's a lovely name," Jim protested angrily.

"Alright, alright. Lad, I'm not going to help you, and don't go asking anyone else either, because I'm the head servant here at the palace. You can tell by my snazzy uniform. And the others will chase you away with broomsticks if I tell them to. I won't have you interfering with their duties." The man turned to walk away.

"Then, give me a job," Jim pleaded in desperation, leaping after the man.

The man looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I've got experience. I'm a ship's cabin boy – at least, I was."

"You'd take up a job just to find the lass of yours who works here?"

"Well, I could use the money too."

"No funny business now." The man said, pointing a finger into Jim's chest. "I'm not running a charity. It so happens the palace needs some extra temporary help, as their planning something big coming up soon – but you didn't hear it from me. Now, I'll only give you a job if you're serious, and do your work. What you do off hours is entirely up to you."

"Yes, yes sir," Jim assured him. "I'm completely serious."

"You're hired." The man took a mop and bucket and pressed them into Jim's hands. "You're familiar with these, I hope?"

"A little too familiar," Jim said wearily.

"Good. Well, go on inside. I'll show you the servant's quarters where you can find a place to sleep. You don't get a uniform because you're not important enough yet. Meals come with the job though. And in the morning, I want to see you making this palace spotlessly clean. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Jim said.

Jim trusted that Delbert and Captain Amelia would not launch the ship without him. He knew they would never leave the planet without him, unless they were assured of his death first. But before he went back to the ship, he just had to find Cinderella. He knew if he returned without her, the others might do anything to get him to leave without her – Captain Amelia might go so far as to knock him senseless and toss his limp body onto the ship. That was why he was not returning to them without Cinderella.

He spent the next day scrubbing the magnificent ballroom of the palace. Most of the other servants were employed in the same task, and he was constantly glancing around to see if Cinderella was among them. While he was glancing around covertly, a pair of legs stopped before him, and he looked up to see it was the Prince. He was tall, handsome, and dark-haired, like his older brother, but the look in his eyes was very different than what Jim had seen in his dead brother's portrait.

"Distracted by something?" the Prince asked, looking down at Jim with a smug smile.

Jim realized he had stopped scrubbing, and was staring directly at the girl servants across the room. He had been looking to see if Cinderella was one of them, but the Prince didn't know that.

"I was… just…"

"That's Your Highness to you," the Prince corrected. "Where's your uniform?"

"They didn't give me one," Jim retorted, glaring up at the Prince.

"Don't worry, I'll soon have that fixed," the Prince said cheerily, as if he was doing Jim a favor. As he walked away, he said, "I won't have any servant in a palace of mine looking like that."

Jim scowled at the Prince as he walked away, dove his scrub brush into his bucket, and began scrubbing furiously. It had been his first meeting with the Prince, and he decided he didn't like him.

He didn't find Cinderella, not even at the mealtimes in the servants' quarters. He tried to sneak into the ladies' sleeping quarters to look for her, but a maid caught him and chased him out, whacking a broom over her his head.

Most of the time Jim was mopping or scrubbing, but whenever he had free time he was searching the palace for the sight of a blonde-haired servant girl. Days passed, and turned into weeks.

And while Jim spent the long weeks cleaning the palace and making it spotless, Cinderella spent the time similarly cleaning the Tremaine house. She had no idea where Jim was, but each day reminded herself of his promise, that he would come back for her. She had wandered out into the woods and found the small crater where his lifeboat had landed. She remembered the morning she had seen it fall from the sky. It was still there, wrecked beyond all repair, and burnt to a crisp. Cinderella liked looking at it though; it was the shooting star that had brought her one friend to her. At nights she would sit in her room and open the map Jim had given her, with Morph, Jaq, Gus, and the rest of her mice friends sitting at her side. Jim had shown her how to open the map. She would spend hours looking at the glittering galaxy hanging above her, memorizing the trade routes and interstellar highways, learning the planets and stars, and wondering where Jim was.

Jim was beginning to suspect Lady Tremaine had lied to him. But he could not leave the palace until he was absolutely certain Cinderella wasn't there, and the palace was a very big place, with servants always coming and going. One morning, he was ordered to scrub the floor of the King's own private suite. While Jim was scrubbing diligently, the King entered the room, his son Prince Chartreuse following behind him. Jim looked up at them interestedly, because he had never seen the King before. Both ignored him, as the nobility usually ignored the servants in the palace, and began talking amongst themselves.

"Son, I know it's been hard since your brother was killed," the King said to the Prince, "by those despicable pirates! To think, it's been weeks now, and we still haven't caught them. But I know it's been hard on you especially, having to come home and take up his shoes. I know you don't really like being home in the palace, with all the responsibilities; that's why you've stayed abroad so long, and only came home when you had to, when the news came of your brother."

"It doesn't matter now," the Prince said. "I'm heir to the throne now; I have responsibilities. I had to come home."

The King slapped his son on the back. "Exactly. Responsibilities. Chartreuse, as my last living son, and heir to the throne, you have a responsibility now to produce heirs. You have to get married, and have children. And quickly."

"What? But Father-"

"Which is why," the King interrupted, "I am throwing you a royal ball, here in the palace. Tonight."

Jim had slowed down his scrubbing, listening in fascination to their conversation, and looking up at them from the floor.

"Tonight?" the Prince shouted.

"Surprise!" the King shouted, throwing out his arms and grinning. "I knew you would be excited. The truth is, Chartreuse, I had been thinking of doing the same thing for your brother Charming, before he died. And now, the kingdom needs something to brighten it up."

The Prince looked flabbergasted, but his father continued excitedly. "I've just sent the messengers, delivering the invitations to every household in the kingdom. You see, it's the perfect place for you to find a bride, because by royal decree I have declared that every eligible young maiden must attend!"

"Father," the Prince said in dismay, "that's-"

"Brilliant? I know. You simply have to find one there that you like, because every single girl in the kingdom is going to be there!"

Jim had stopped scrubbing completely. The revelation dawned on him. "Every single girl in the kingdom," he repeated without thinking, "is going to be there."

"What was that, lad?" the King snapped, looking down at Jim.

"Nothing, Your Highness," Jim said, shaking his head and starting to scrub the floor furiously.

"Good lad. Now, Chartreuse-" the King turned back to his son. "The caterers will be here with the food any minutes, and the orchestra coming to set up. The ball doesn't start until eight o' clock, but I want everything perfect. In fact, you should probably start getting ready now – I say, lad," he said, turning to Jim, because Jim had scrambled to his feet and was hurrying to the door. "What's gotten into you?"

"Sorry, Your Highness," Jim said quickly. "Just, you know, places to go, and people to see."

He dashed out of the room, leaving the King and Prince staring at him in confusion. Jim was running down the hallways and down the stairs, causing servants to stop and stare at him as he passed. He was going back to the ship, right now. He would find Delbert and Captain Amelia and tell them that it was finally time to launch, tonight. Because tonight, he would find Cinderella. By royal decree, every maiden in the kingdom had to come to the ball. And Jim would be there, and he would find her. He would fly the ship with Delbert and Captain Amelia to somewhere near the palace – it would be nighttime, and everyone would be at the ball, and probably not notice. As soon as he found Cinderella at the ball, he would take her to the ship, and they would blast off the planet.

He was so happy, he could have thrown his arms around the King and thanked him for throwing the ball. After weeks of waiting and searching, Jim finally had a plan. He was overjoyed, because tonight he would finally see Cinderella again.

On his way, he figured he would stop by the dressmaker's shop, and leave all the wages he had made working in the palace. He wouldn't be needing the money, and he still had that pink dress to pay off.


	5. Help From a Fairy Godmother

Ch. 5 – Help From a Fairy Godmother

On the other side of the kingdom, Cinderella was interrupted from her floor-scrubbing by a knock on the front door. Her heart fluttered with the hope it might be Jim. It had been weeks now since he had left, but the hope was still strong in her that he had not forgotten her. She answered the door, and found to her disappointment it was not Jim, but a messenger in a palace uniform.

"An urgent message from His Imperial Majesty," he said, handing her an elaborately sealed envelope.

"Thank you," Cinderella said. He left, and she shut the door, looking curiously at the envelope.

Jaq and Gus ran up to her, with Morph hovering after them, all looking inquiringly at the envelope. "He said it's urgent," she said to them. She went upstairs to where her stepmother and two stepsisters were engaged in a painful music lesson.

"Cinderella," her stepmother barked, turning on the girl as she entered the room. "I warned you never to interrupt while-"

"But this just arrived from the palace!" she said, holding out the envelope.

"From the palace!" the stepsisters cried, rushing up to her, and snatching the letter.

"I'll read it!" their mother said, grabbing it away from them. "Well," she read excitedly, as her daughters leapt up and down for joy, "There's to be a ball, in honor of His Highness, the Prince! And, by royal command, it says that every eligible young maiden is to attend!"

"Why, that means I can go too!" Cinderella said happily. Her two stepsisters immediately began teasing her, but Cinderella held her head high. "Well, why not? After all, I am still a member of the family. And it says, by royal command, every eligible maiden is to attend."

"Yes, so it does," her stepmother said pensively, and then a sly smile came over her face. "Well I see no reason why you can't go, if you get all your work done-"

"Oh, I will, I will! I promise!"

"-and if you can find something suitable to wear-"

"I'm sure I can! Oh thank you, Stepmother!" Cinderella hurried happily out of the room, shutting the door on her stepmother and stepsisters.

She didn't have long to worry about what she was going to wear to the ball, because only a few minutes later, another knock came at the door. It was a messenger sent from the town dressmaker, carrying a bundle. "A delivery, Miss." He handed the wrapped bundle to Cinderella, who thanked him, and shut the door behind him.

Jaq and Gus scurried out again in curiosity, and Morph squawked happily, as if he already knew what it was. Cinderella read the label on the package. "To Ella!" she said in astonishment. "Why, that's me! And nobody calls me that, except-" She fell silent, spun around to make sure her stepmother and stepsisters weren't around, and then ran up to her room. Her mice and bird friends along with Morph gathered eagerly around her as she put the package on her bed and unwrapped it.

She gasped in amazement. "Why, it's my-" She pulled out the long pink gown, adorned with white ribbons and bows. It was the gown that Jim had asked the dressmaker to make for her, that day in town they had spent together, all those weeks ago. She held the dress up to her, twirling around for the mice, birds, and Morph to see. "I never dreamed it – oh, it's such a surprise-" She was delightfully happy. She picked up the label, "To Ella."

"It's from Jim," she said joyfully. "Why, that must mean-" She twirled around to look at Morph, Jaq, and Gus. "He wants me to meet him at the ball tonight!" The mice and birds nodded ecstatically, and Morph did a somersault in the air. "He sent me this dress so I could go! That means he's found his ship after all, and tonight we're going to leave."

The mice and birds looked a little sullen at that. "Oh, I'll miss you all so much," she said, looking at them. "You've been my dearest friends for so long. But you must understand, I just have to leave this place. And Jim and I promised we would leave together."

Jaq walked up and patted her foot in comfort, smiling sadly up at her. He was representing all of them, to say they were happy for her, and would miss her. "Thank you, all," she said, "for everything." She twirled around in front of the mirror, holding the dress Jim had sent her. "Maybe dreams can come true."

That night, a carriage arrived at the Tremaine house, to carry Lady Tremaine and her daughters to the ball. Lady Tremaine had rented the carriage for the evening. Her two daughters were dressed in the fine gowns she had bought them, and she was dressed in her stateliest as well. She hoped to impress the young Prince with her daughters. As for Cinderella, she had kept her so busy with chores the entire day that she was certain the girl had had no time to find anything to wear. That solved that problem, she thought with a sly smile.

She and her daughters paraded down the staircase to the front door, to where the carriage was waiting outside. "Now remember," she told her daughters, "when you're presented to His Highness, be sure to-"

"Wait!" a voice suddenly called out behind them. "Please, wait for me!" They turned around in shock to see Cinderella running down the staircase, wearing a pink gown that was certainly not the most stylish or beautiful of gowns, but nonetheless Cinderella looked radiant in it. "Isn't it lovely?" she asked them, twirling her dress. "Do you like it? Do you think it will do?"

The stepsisters stared in shock for a moment, then turned to their mother with a tirade of complaints. "Girls, please!" she quieted them. "After all, we did make a bargain, didn't we, Cinderella? And I never go back on my word." She approached Cinderella, examining her. "How very clever. But I must ask, Cinderella, where you got this dress from? You know I would never permit thievery-"

"Oh, I didn't steal it!" Cinderella said hurriedly. "It was a gift! It was sent to me."

"Sent to her?" Anastasia cried indignantly. "Who on Earth would send a dress to her?"

"And, where exactly did you find this gift, Cinderella?" Lady Tremaine asked suspiciously.

"It arrived in a package; it was addressed to me, To Ella-"

"To Ella?" Drisella shouted. "Why you're not Ella, you're just Cinders! It was obviously addressed to me! Why, everyone knows Ella is short for Drisella! That dress was for me, you stupid girl!"

"Oh no, I'm quite certain-" Cinderella pleaded, distraught. "It was from Jim-"

"Jim?" Anastasia yelled. "Why would that boy ever send you a dress? Drisella is right: it was for one of us!"

"You little thief!" Drisella screamed.

The two stepsisters lunged on Cinderella, ripping and tearing at her dress and her hair. "No, please!" she cried, but they viciously clawed and tore at her.

"Girls, girls," Lady Tremaine said with a chuckle. "That's quite enough. Hurry along now, the both of you. I won't have you upsetting yourselves."

The two stepsisters hurried out the door, chins held up in the air. Cinderella looked down at the dress Jim had sent to her; it was torn to shreds. She had nothing else to wear. They would never let her into the ball looking like this. She wouldn't be able to meet Jim, and she might never see him again. If he couldn't find her at the ball, he might have to leave without her.

"Good night," Lady Tremaine said to Cinderella, a wicked smug smile on her face, and shut the door behind her.

Cinderella broke into tears, running through the house, out the door, and into the garden. She ran to the bench where she and her father had used to sit all those years ago, under the weeping willow. She fell to her knees, buried her head in her arms, and wept.

"It's just no use," she sobbed, as the mice and birds gathered around sadly. "No use at all." The horse and her dog Bruno lowered their heads in sadness, and Jaq, Gus, and Morph exchanged defeated glances. They could think of no way to help her now. As Cinderella wept, the air around her began to shimmer very subtly, and Morph pointed it out excitedly to Jaq and Gus, who looked up in fascination. The shimmer had become glittering lights, gathering around Cinderella's weeping form. They were almost like the glittering stars that came out of the map Jim had given her, whenever she opened it, but the lights coalesced into the form of a kindly old woman in a periwinkle cloak, stroking Cinderella's head in her lap.

"I can't believe, not anymore," Cinderella wept. "Now I'll never see Jim again. Never."

"Never, my dear?" the woman asked gently. "Oh, but you don't really mean that.

"Oh, but I do-"

"Nonsense, child! If you'd lost all your faith, I couldn't be here. And here I am!"

Cinderella looked up in astonishment to see the mysterious woman who had appeared before her. "Come now, dry those tears," the woman said, lifting the girl to her feet. "We can't have Jim see you at the ball looking like that!"

"The ball? Oh but I'm not-"

"Of course you are! But we have to hurry. Because even miracles take a little time."

"Miracles?"

"Mm-hm. Watch!" the woman said. "What in the world did I do with that magic wand? I was sure I-"

"Magic wand?"

The woman was searching all around her. "That's strange, I always-"

Cinderella's face lit up. "Why then you must be my-"

"Your fairy godmother? Of course. Where is that wand? Oh I forgot – I put it away." And the old woman pulled her magic wand out of thin air, before Cinderella's amazed eyes. Cinderella then watched in increasing wonder as her fairy godmother transformed a pumpkin into a regal carriage, four of her mice friends into four white horses, the real horse into the carriage driver, and her dog Bruno into the footman.

Then she pointed her wand at Cinderella and transformed the ragged pink gown that Jim had sent her into the most beautiful, elegant, shimmering silver ball gown, complete with glass slippers on her feet. Cinderella was delightfully happy and thanked her fairy godmother profusely. "Now, you have the map with you, don't you, dear?" the woman reminded her kindly.

"The map Jim gave me? Oh, I left it up in my room for safe keeping-"

"I think you might need it, dear." The old woman spotted Morph flying around Cinderella excitedly, and pointed her wand at him, but before she could turn him into anything, Morph transformed into a small silver handbag that hung from Cinderella's wrist. "That will do," she said in slight confusion, peering at the handbag suspiciously. "Now, just look inside there-"

Cinderella looked inside the silver handbag. "I don't see anything," she said.

The woman tapped it with her wand. "Now look."

Cinderella again looked in the handbag that was really Morph and saw the familiar smooth orb lying safely inside. "Oh, the map!"

"Good," her fairy godmother said with a smile. Then she explained to Cinderella that the magic would only last until midnight, and at that exact time everything would return to the way it was.

"Oh I understand, but," Cinderella said, "it's more than I ever hoped for," she gratefully to the old woman. "Now I have the chance to see Jim again." She said with a dazzling smile.

"Bless you, my child," her fairy godmother said happily. "Goodness me, it's getting late!" she said in alarm, then hurried Cinderella into the carriage awaiting her. She climbed inside quickly, treading carefully in her glass slippers, with Morph dangling at her wrist in the form of the handbag, with the precious treasure map inside. She would return it to Jim when she saw him, just as he had said at their parting.

Bruno the footman shut the carriage door for her, and the driver signaled for the four horses to pull the carriage into motion. Cinderella leaned out the carriage window and waved good-bye to her fairy godmother. The carriage pulled her through the front gates, through the woods, across the bridge, and through the town, toward the castle glittering in the starlight where she knew in her heart that Jim would be waiting for her.


	6. Help From a Cyborg Pirate

Ch. 6 – Help From a Cyborg Pirate

Meanwhile, it took Jim the majority of the day to cross the kingdom to the distant farmland where the ship had crashed. The sun was setting by the time he mounted the hill on which the other side was the vast crater in which the ship sat. But that was alright, because he knew that Captain Amelia and Delbert would have the ship running by now, and it would be a matter of minutes for the ship to carry them back to the castle. His plan was to fly the ship to the castle, park it subtly in the back somewhere, run into the ball and find Cinderella, then take her back to the ship and blast off with Amelia and Delbert. After weeks of feeling lost, the plan had been suddenly illuminated before him, and it was so simple he didn't see how anything could possibly go wrong.

He knew he had been mistaken, however, when he mounted the hill, looked down into the crater, and saw absolutely no ship. It was gone; there was no trace left the ship had ever been there except for the gaping empty crater and singed trees around it. He ran down toward the crater, calling for Amelia and Delbert at the top of his lungs. He searched for them for an hour, but no one replied to his shouts, and when it was too dark to search anymore he wandered back to the crater and fell to his knees in despair.

Had Amelia and Delbert launched the ship without him? No; he knew in his heart that his two friends would never willingly have left without him. He realized, then, what must have happened: the villainous pirate crew had found the ship and taken it for themselves. He could only hope that they had taken Amelia and Delbert with them when they had launched off the planet, and not harmed them in any way.

If the pirates had commandeered the ship and left the planet with it, it meant Jim was stranded on this planet, probably for the rest of his life. That didn't seem so bad to him at the moment as the fact that he had now no means of reaching the ball in time. He had depended on flying the ship back to the ball; he would never make it on foot. It would take him until tomorrow morning to walk there, even if he wasn't already exhausted from the trek he had already made. And that meant he might never find Cinderella. What if she was there, waiting for him, and was hurt or angered that he had not come for her? Or worse: what if she met someone else there, a handsome young man, like that awful Prince Chartreuse? The thought of it made Jim simmer, and he stood up and kicked a fallen tree branch in anger. He stubbed his toe, howled in pain, and sank back to his knees.

"I can't believe, not anymore," he whispered to the dark, lowering his head in grief. "There's nothing left to believe in."

"Is that how you really feel, lad?" a familiar voice said behind him. Jim sprung to his feet, spun around, and looked in amazement at the figure of Long John Silver. The tall man stood before him at the rim of the crater, his metal cyborg parts glinting in the moonlight, a smug smile on his lips.

"Silver?" Jim cried in disbelief.

"It's good to see ya, Jimbo!" the cyborg pirate said heartily, stepping forward on one booted leg and one metal leg toward Jim, reaching out to embrace him.

Jim stepped back, glaring at the man, who stopped in his tracks at the boy's poisonous look. "You're a pirate," Jim accused angrily. "You were with the rest of the crew when they attacked that ship – when they murdered the Prince. I know you were part of it; I heard them talking about you - you probably led them."

Silver sighed heavily, sitting down on the stump of a tree that had been mowed over by the crashed ship. "Jimbo," he said. "I had better explain everything. I've been accused a lot of things in my life, some good and some bad, and some true, and some not so far from it. Now, I may have taken part in some piracy in my years, but that ain't enough to judge a man on. I may have even been willing to do some treacherous things to get my hands on Flint's treasure. But I can assure you, lad, that I would never lay my hands on an innocent life, not even if it came between me and all the riches of Treasure Planet."

"I managed to get on the last lifeboat," he continued. "And most of the lifeboats crashed close together, so most of the crew was able to join up. It's true, lad. I led them to attack the Prince's ship-" Jim turned his face away in disgust, but Silver pressed on. "I am a pirate," the main admitted fiercely. "A man has to make his living somehow, and it's all I know. I did lead the attack, but I told them all that not one drop of blood was to be spilt. I told them that we were after the ship only, and the cargo, but the crew was not to be harmed. I knew that, being from other worlds, we would frighten the crew enough that they would scatter without putting up any fight. We needed food, lad. What else were we to do? And as for taking the ship, well - it's our line of work, our vocation – you can't fight what a man is made out of. But I ordered them not to harm a single soul on that ship."

"But that Scroop," Silver continued with a venomous sneer, "was the first to take blood. The others followed his example, despite my commands not to. They murdered most of the crew, and took the ship to themselves. Scroop murdered the young Prince, though the lad fought bravely to defend his crew. When I protested, they threw me overboard. I've been wandering alone ever since."

Jim's glare had given way to a sympathetic glance at the pirate. "I've been searching for the ship," Silver went on, his tone of voice beseeching to Jim to listen. "I had hoped to find you with the ship, Jimbo, and maybe the Captain and any other survivors as well. But mostly you, Jimbo. Well, it seems I arrived too late to find the ship. Obviously it was here, by looks of the crater, but my guess is Scroop and his lot found it first and flew it off with it. So, I didn't find the ship, but I did find you, Jimbo, all safe and unharmed, by the looks of it. And that gives me the greatest relief of anything."

Silver smiled hopefully at Jim, and Jim could not help but return the smile. "You really didn't hurt anyone on that ship?" he asked quietly.

"Cross my heart," Silver replied.

Jim sighed, partly in relief, and partly in exhaustion. He believed what Silver was telling him, that he had not hurt anyone, and had tried to stop the carnage that occurred that day. He needed to believe Silver. Because Jim had begun to suspect that the pirates' attack on the Prince's ship had deeper implications than anyone had realized. Their presence, just being here on an alien planet, was causing things to happen that Jim now realized had not been meant to happen. Delbert had said that, by coming through that wormhole, they may have irreversibly altered the timeline. Jim hadn't really understood that until he had seen how Cinderella's eyes lingered on the portrait of the murdered Prince.

Some part of her clearly knew the dead Prince, though she had claimed never to have met him before. If what Jim suspected was true, then she had been meant to meet him, and to fall in love with him. Jim had heard the King say that he had been planning to throw a ball for the late Prince Charming. It was likely, Jim thought, Cinderella would have met him at that ball. She had been meant to be with that Prince, who was now dead - because of the pirates who had crash-landed on the planet - and who were not supposed to be there. Ultimately it was Jim's fault, because it was Jim who had insisted they start out on this unfortunate voyage to Treasure Planet. Jim realized now: he was not supposed to be here, and by coming through that wormhole to Earth, he had ruined Cinderella's life forever. He had crash-landed into her world and come forever between her and her one true love.

He had had nagging suspicions, but as this awful truth dawned on him with its fully realized force, he sank back to his knees in despair. He cradled his head in his hands, and could not keep a few tears from escaping.

"Why lad, what's wrong?" the old pirate asked, kneeling beside him, and draping an arm around his shoulders.

"See," Jim said, not meeting Silver's eyes, "there's this girl. And, I promised I'd go back for her. Well, the short story is, I was supposed to go meet her at this ball at the castle tonight. I was going to fly the ship to the castle and meet her there, but then I got here, and this ship was gone, and I have no idea where it is, and I could never get to the ball on foot in time to find her." He sighed, disgusted with himself. "I thought that I could help her, but I was wrong. Just like I thought I could help my mother by finding Treasure Planet, and making us rich. I was wrong about that too. I can't find Treasure Planet," he said with a bitter laugh, "and I can't help anybody."

"Lad-" the pirate said gently.

"Maybe it wasn't really about helping anyone," Jim said defiantly, his voice raising. "Maybe it was really about proving myself. I wanted to prove that I could do something right, that I was somebody worthwhile." His head dropped again, staring at the ground. "But I was wrong about that too. I meant to help her, but I've only ruined her life. And it's all my fault."

"A girl, 'ey? Well that explains things a bit." Silver said, half to himself. He looked back at Jim. "It weren't your fault, ya know." Jim sighed. Silver went on, "I'm sure you tried your best, and that's all anybody can-"

"Look, don't you get it?" Jim burst suddenly in anger. He pulled away from Silver and rose to his feet. "I screwed up! I thought for two seconds that maybe I could do something right, but – I just-" He trailed off, unable to continue speaking. He stumbled to a tree and leaned against it, dropping his head to stare at the dirt. "Forget it, just forget it," he said.

Silver watched him with a painful sympathetic expression. Then he became pensive, and his face took on a light of determination. He put his hand on Jim's shoulder, turned him around to see his face, and stared him straight in the eye.

"Now, you listen to me, James Hawkins," he demanded. "You got the makings of greatness in you, but you got to take the helm and chart your own course! Stick to it, no matter the squalls! And when the time comes and you get the chance to really test the cut of your sails, and show what you're made of - well, I hope I'm there, catching some of the light coming off you that day."

Jim looked up at him with wide awestruck eyes. Here was the one person in the entire world, maybe further, who believed in him. Jim had once admired this man, a criminal and a pirate, like the father he had never really had. Now that he had heard the truth from the man's mouth about what had happened, and what was more, now that he had heard the man's assurance that he truly had faith in Jim – it had erased all doubt from Jim's heart. He loved Silver, and admired him, and would for the rest of his life. And he would be forever grateful for the faith this man put in a boy who didn't even have faith in himself. Overcome with gratitude and exhaustion, Jim leaned his head onto the man's chest and wept.

"There, there, Jimbo," the man said, patting the boy's back reassuringly, and embracing him. "It's alright." Then he put his hands on the boy's shoulders and held him out at arm's length. "Now listen, Jimbo," he said. "About this girl you're supposed to meet at the ball tonight – well, time's a-wasting! We better get you off in a jiffy!"

"The ball?" Jim asked, his eyes red and bleary.

"Aye, lad! So you can find your bonnie lass!"

"But, I don't have anyway to get there."

"Lad, you don't think you'd ever catch ol' Silver without a boat, do ya?" he laughed heartily. He pulled back a clump of bushes with his metal arm to reveal a small boat hidden in the undergrowth. It was complete with rocket propellers and a small triangular solar sail, and big enough for a few people to sit in.

"One of the lifeboats!" Jim said, his face lighting up. "It survived the crash!"

"Thanks to me," Silver said, patting the boat. "It was a fair job of steering I did coming down in this lifeboat. It's the only one that survived the crash, as far as I know. I've been sailing it around all this time, looking for the ship. But now, Jimbo, I'm gonna sail you over to your high-toned fancy-do ball of yours. And after that," he finished, looking at Jim straight in the eye with a roguish smile, "you and me are blasting off of this planet."

"We can launch in that?" Jim asked.

"Unfortunately the solar sail just busted yesterday," Silver explained. "Irreparable. However, there's just enough reserve fuel in the rocket propeller to launch us into space."

"But Silver," Jim protested, "that wormhole put us light years away from home! We'll never make it back in that little boat. We can't even make it to the nearest spaceport, not on reserve fuel!"

"We only need to make it back to the wormhole, lad."

"The wormhole? But I've always heard it said, you can't go back through the same way you went in."

"Aye, that's what those high-browed astronomers tend to say, isn't it? But they've never been through one, have they? Don't know what they're bloody talking about. Now you listen to me, Jimbo: I sailed with Billy Bones and Flint himself back in the day. It was agreed between us to divvy the loot into three. Never got my share. Flint took it all to himself and stashed it in his trove. That's why I've been after Treasure Planet after all these years – it's not so much the loot as the principle of the thing. Though the loot is fair motivation standin' on its own."

"But the point is," he continued, "I saw how ol' Flint stashed his loot. He used wormholes; he called 'em portals. He invented the technology to create a portal, anywhere, at any time, that could lead him anywhere he wanted. He went back and forth to Treasure Planet riding the wormholes. He went through 'em both ways. You hear that, Jim?" he said with an intense glance. "Both ways."

"We can go back through the wormhole," Jim said, realizing. "Right back to where we came in."

"That's right. Once we're on the other side, we're bound to be picked up by a passing ship; space traffic is heavy around those parts. Then it's a hop and a skip to the nearest space port, and you and I can even resume the search for Treasure Planet, just the two of us."

"Silver," Jim said firmly. "I'm taking Ella too."

"The lass of yours?"

Jim nodded.

"I thought so," he sighed. "Well, that's alright then. The ship will hold all of us. But Jimbo, tell me what's become of my little Morph?"

"He's with Ella," Jim said. "And so is the map."

"You must really trust her," Silver said thoughtfully. "Well then, no time to waste! Hop in the boat and I'll sail you straight to the ball! No dilly-dallying around; we've only got so much reserve fuel." Jim excitedly ran to the boat, about to hop in. "Why Jimbo," Silver said abruptly. "Blimey, lad, you can't go lookin' like that!"

Jim stopped and looked down at himself. He was wearing his dirty, worn-out spacer clothes and boots. They probably wouldn't even allow him into the ball looking like that. "Let's see what we have in here," Silver said, digging into the hold of the boat. "Ah!" He pulled out a white gold-trimmed jacket and trousers. "Look what's in here!" he said. "Royal Navy formal uniform! Left over from when the Navy was sailing our ship. Well go on, try it on."

He tossed the suit to Jim, who changed quickly and threw his old clothes in the boat. The jacket and pants fit perfectly; he looked down at himself and thought he must not look half-bad. Silver patted down the hair on his head. "There," he announced. "A dashing young man. Now hop in your carriage, sire," he said with a grin and a flourishing bow, gesturing to the boat.

"Oh, shut it," Jim said, stifling a smile. He hopped into the boat, followed by Silver, who sat at the stern with the steering mechanism. He engaged the engine, and with a loud spluttering noise, the rocket propeller burst into blue flame, and the boat was lifted off the ground.

"Hold tight," Silver said. The boat roared into motion, zooming over the ground. Silver deftly steered the boat around obstacles, keeping the boat at a low hovering altitude so as not to be seen by natives. The wind whipped Jim's hair as they soared through the night, over hills and rivers, toward the white shimmering point in the distance that Jim knew was the palace.

"Here's the rules, Jimbo," Silver said. "We're going on reserve fuel, so I don't dare turn off the engine, or I'll never get it started again. I'm going to wait out back with the boat hidden somewhere, keeping the engine on. You need to run into that ball and find this lass of yours, and Morph too, and the map would be mighty nice as well. You bring her back to the boat, and then we're launching, before we run out of fuel. We absolutely have to launch tonight, Jimbo; if we even wait 'til morning, the fuel will run out, and we'll be stranded here forever."

"If you don't find her," Silver continued, his tone more wary, "you have to come back, Jimbo. I don't want to launch without you, but I sure don't want to be stranded on this backwater planet for the rest of my years either. If she isn't there, we're leaving without her, understood?"

"I'll find her," Jim said firmly. "She'll be there – I know she will."

"Sometimes," Silver said warily, "plans go astray."

"Not this time," Jim said. The boat raced through the night, the castle shimmering ahead like a supernova in the starlit sky.


	7. The Ball

Ch. 7 – The Ball

Cinderella was the last young lady to arrive at the ball. Bruno, her footman for the night, opened the carriage door for her, and she climbed out, treading carefully on her glass slippers. She wandered up the grand staircase and into the entrance hall of the palace, past tall guards who stood silently but whose eyes followed her as she passed. Then she entered the ballroom, where hundreds of ladies in beautiful ball gowns and men in dashing suits were scattered about the high-ceilinged room, chatting, flirting, or dancing. Cinderella wandered about the room as if lost, though she was really searching for Jim. Her heart was fluttering quickly, but began to sink as she wandered alone through the crowd with no sight of him. Was he not there? Or worse, would she turn a corner to find him chatting with some beautiful girl?

The ballroom, filled with glittering lights and spinning waltzing couples that glinted in the reflections, reminded Cinderella of the miniature model of the galaxy that sprung from the map Jim had given her. Cinderella did not realize as she wandered in search of the boy, but all eyes in the ballroom were glued on her as she passed; she shimmered like the brightest star in the miniature star-filled universe of the ballroom.

A man stood directly before her, and she noticed him a moment late, because she had been glancing around for sight of the brown-haired blue-eyed boy. The young man before her was dark-haired and much taller than Jim, and dressed regally. He bowed and kissed her hand, causing her to feel flustered, and then he asked her to dance.

"That's very kind of you," she said politely, "but I'm actually looking for someone."

"If you will say no to my asking for a dance," he replied with a smile, "then your Prince commands you to dance."

"Oh!" Cinderella gasped, for she hadn't realized he was the younger of the two princes, Prince Chartreuse. He did look like the portrait of his brother she had seen, but something about his eyes seemed colder.

"Yes, Your Highness," she answered reluctantly, and he put his hands on her and spun her into a waltz. As they spun in slow circles, the orchestra matching them perfectly, she stole quick glances around the crowd for a familiar face.

"You seem distracted," the Prince whispered.

"I'm sorry," she said, her eyes darting back to him. "It's just that, I was supposed to meet someone here. But," she added sadly, "I don't see him anywhere."

"What a foolish man he must be," the Prince replied with a smile, "to abandon such a partner alone at the ball. If he doesn't appear, I'll be forced to steal his dance partner."

"You're very kind," Cinderella said. "Thank you for the lovely dance, Your Highness." She broke away from him, though he only let go reluctantly. "But there are many other young girls craving a dance with you, and I couldn't steal their time away from them." She curtsied and then hurried away quickly.

"But-" the Prince protested, but a swarm of girls suddenly descended on him, hoping their turn would be next, crowding around and blocking Cinderella from view.

Cinderella was becoming distraught as she hurried alone through the ballroom, away from the Prince. The clock was almost at eleven. She could only stay until midnight, and Jim wasn't there yet. Maybe the Prince had been right; maybe he had abandoned her, alone at the ball.

Silver steered the boat to the back of the castle, and let it drop to the ground in a clump of trees, hiding it from view. Jim leaped out of the boat, wildly tried to smooth down his hair, and broke into a run. "I'll be back in a minute!" he called back to Silver.

Silver sat back comfortably in the boat and called back, "You'd better be, or I'm leavin' without ya, hear me, Jimbo? Don't overestimate me!" He laughed heartily. "Now go find your bonnie lass!"

Jim smiled as he heard the shout behind him, but he didn't look back. He ran through the palace gardens, around the fountain, up the sweeping staircase, and entered through the backdoor of the ballroom. The guards let him pass. Lady Tremaine had told Jim that Cinderella was working at the palace as a servant, so Jim assumed he would see Cinderella in a servant's uniform, perhaps offering appetizers, or setting the banquet table. He looked at everyone wearing a servant's uniform, but Cinderella was not among them.

Maybe Lady Tremaine had lied to him, like he suspected, and she was not a palace servant. In that case she must have attended as a guest, as the royal decree commanded. But what would she be wearing? He spotted Anastasia and Drisella with Lady Tremaine, and he hurriedly darted behind a pillar to avoid them. When they had passed, he continued his search. There were hundreds of maidens, all in different colored ball gowns and elaborate hairstyles, and Jim had only ever seen Cinderella in her household servant's clothes. Then he remembered: the dress he had sent her! What color had he told the dressmaker? He racked his brain. Pink! He narrowed his search to every girl wearing a pink dress, but he did not recognize any face.

He stood alone in the middle of the ballroom, shoulders slumped in exhaustion. Couples waltzed in circles around him, but he didn't move. He didn't see Cinderella anywhere, and everything depended on him finding her tonight. He noticed that all the heads in the crowd had subtly turned to look at a place behind Jim, over his shoulder. He wondered what they were looking at. He turned around, and directly before him, at the top of a sweeping staircase, was the most beautiful vision he had ever seen: a girl in a silver dress that shimmered like starlight in the Etherium. In shock Jim realized she was looking directly at him.

She slowly descended the staircase, her dress glittering like a comet shower whenever she moved, until she reached the dance floor and stood before Jim, who stood frozen in confusion. It was only as he looked into her blue sparkling eyes that he realized in certainty that it was Cinderella.

"Ella," he said in shock. "You look…" He trailed off dumbly.

"What?" she asked in puzzlement.

"Like I've seen you in the night sky."

"A heavenly body?" she asked jokingly, referring back to the pick-up line Jim had used on her the first time he had seen her.

"The Eighth Wonder of the Universe," Jim said.

She looked down, blushing. "I was afraid you weren't coming," she said. "I've been avoiding the Prince for an hour now, hiding in corners and behind pillars."

"I'm sorry. I had to catch a boat." He gave a malicious glance in the Prince's direction.

"I'm just glad you made it," she said, giving a wildly relieved smile.

Jim saw that the Prince had noticed them, looking surprised. He was making his way toward them. "Dance with me," Jim said quickly, and put one hand on Cinderella's waist and the other on her hand. He twirled her quickly away into the crowd of waltzing couples, out of sight of the Prince. "Ella," he whispered. "How would you like to leave with me? Tonight."

"Did you find your ship?" she asked, wide-eyed. "And your crew?"

"Yes, and yes, but I lost them again. But I do have a boat waiting out back, with a friend. We have to launch tonight; if we wait until morning, the boat won't start."

"Then quickly," she said, smiling excitedly. "Let's escape out the back. I have Morph with me, and the map."

"Great," Jim said, grinning. Then he remembered the thoughts that had been nagging the back of his mind for some time now, the thoughts that made him hesitate about taking Cinderella with him, as much as he wanted her to come. "Ella," he said, in a very different tone of voice, "Are you sure you want to come with me? This is your home planet, after all. As much as I want you to come with me, I want to be absolutely sure that it's what you want, and that you understand what it means."

"What does it mean?" she asked in a bewilderment as they waltzed. "I don't understand what you're saying."

"What I mean is, there's a whole universe out there, and it could be dangerous, and it's very big. And once we leave this planet, we probably won't ever be able to come back."

"I don't care if I ever see this planet again," she replied. "There's nothing left for me here. I want to go with you."

"You say that, but you hardly know who I am," Jim said, a hint of anger creeping into his voice, and they stopped waltzing abruptly. Jim didn't know what it was exactly he was trying to convey to her, but he was frustrated that she didn't understand it. "I'm not rich," he said, his voice wavering with resentment. "I'm not like the Prince. I don't even have a house for us to go back to; my house was burned down in a fire, when it was attacked by pirates. And me – I've got no future." He gestured wildly in frustration. "I'm just a cabin boy. I'm just a kid wandering around space in search of treasure or acceptance or something he doesn't even understand. Are you sure you want to cast your lot in with me? You don't understand what it is you're getting into."

Cinderella took a step back from him, her face an expression of shock and anger. "Why are you asking me this now?" she demanded. "Have you decided you don't want me to come anymore? I'm just a servant girl, not good enough to take with you? Did you find someone else to take along, someone richer or prettier or –what was it you said – 'with a future'? I guess you've realized that I don't have a future anymore than you do, and I've got nothing to offer, and you have no reason to take me with you," she said bitterly, her lovely features distraught.

"You don't understand!" Jim retorted. "I'm just trying to tell you who I really am-"

"And who are you?" she asked, stepping up to him and staring him straight in the eye. The couples waltzing around them were politely ignoring them, but stealing curious glances in their direction. "You're just a boy who fell out of the sky, and I didn't know from where or how, but I trusted you. Because I didn't know very much about you, but I could see just enough that I-" She stopped herself, and shook her head.

"Ella," Jim said. "I guess what's really bothering me is that, I'm not really supposed to be here. I sort of realized it over time."

"What do you mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes and watching him intensely.

"When our ship came through the wormhole," Jim explained slowly and painfully, "and crash-landed on your planet, it changed the timeline. By coming here, I changed what was supposed to happen. The crew of the ship – after they landed, they started attacking other ships. They attacked the Prince's ship. They killed the Prince, Ella." He could see she did not understand. "The older prince, Prince Charming," he went on. "Ella, you said you felt as if you knew him, even though you had never met him. I think it's because you were supposed to meet him. You would have, if my ship hadn't crashed here, and my crewmates hadn't killed him. I think you would have met him at this very ball. Ella, you were supposed to marry him," he said gently. "I'm sure of it. And I am so, so sorry, Ella," he pleaded. "Because it's my fault that he's dead, because when it all comes down to it, it was my stupid idea to set out for Treasure Planet. And if I had just done the smart thing and stayed home, we would never have come here, and he wouldn't be dead. And you would have found your true love and been a princess and lived happily ever after."

She stared at him with confused wide eyes, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Don't you see?" he said. "I've ruined your life by coming here. It's all my fault."

"Your crew?" she asked, stepping back from him. "Those murdering pirates who killed the Prince, were your crew? They came here with you?"

Jim nodded regretfully.

"Then you're a pirate," she said in realization, her voice accusatory.

"I didn't help them attack that ship!"

"But you sailed with them," she said in a hurt tone, "and you said one of them was your friend, like a father to you!"

"Silver is different," Jim said shortly.

"But he's a pirate?"

"Yes, but – you wouldn't understand."

"I can't understand if you keep so many secrets from me," she said, her voice trembling in frustration. "I kept nothing from you, but you didn't tell me that those pirates were your crew; you just failed to mention it-"

"But Ella-"

"Now I'll tell you who I really am," she said caustically. "I'm not Ella, I'm just Cinderella the servant girl. I'm Cinders the scullery maid." She turned from him haughtily, but he reached out to grab her arm and stop her.

"Ella," he said hurriedly. "That isn't what I meant-"

"Didn't you hear?" she said, glaring at him. "I'm not Ella. I'm not who you thought I was, just like you aren't the person I thought you were." Jim stared at her in shock, and she pulled away from him. She picked up her wide sparkling gown and hurried away from him.

Jim was about to run after her when a thunderous noise shook the ballroom. Women screamed as the walls trembled around them, and the ceiling caved in in giant chunks, falling to the dance floor far below. Jim threw himself at Cinderella, shoving her out of the way of a giant chunk of ceiling that would have crushed her. They fell and skidded across the floor together, the ceiling chunk landing a few feet away where she had just been standing. People were screaming and running for the exits, as the guards ran in quickly and pointed their rifles up at the ceiling. Jim and Cinderella looked up to see an enormous ship hovering in the air, visible through the giant hole in the ceiling it had created. It was the R.L.S. Legacy, commandeered by the pirates. The Prince stood firmly as the guests rushed away in a panic. He ordered the guards to fire, and they peppered the ship with gunshot, but Jim saw that the ship's shields were engaged. The bullets bounced off an invisible barrier around the ship, causing a purplish glint whenever they rebounded.

Then a dozen ropes were thrown down from the sides of the ship, and a dozen ferocious-looking pirates from a dozen different alien worlds came climbing, sliding, scurrying, and crawling down the ropes. They had knives between their teeth and swords and blaster guns at their sides, and they landed on the ballroom floor, each with a wicked grin on its face.


	8. The Pirates Attack

Ch. 8 – The Pirates Attack

As the pirates landed on the ballroom floor, the majority of the guests were already in large panicked crowds climbing the staircases that led to the two exits to the ballroom at opposite sides of the room. When they saw the terrifying vision of the monster pirates, the screams increased double fold.

Jim pulled Cinderella to her feet, gripped her hand tightly, and broke into a run. He pulled her toward the nearest exit, which led to the front of the palace, which was unfortunately clogged with a hundred other people with the same idea. The huge insect-like pirate Scroop raised his blaster gun and blasted the front exit way of the ballroom, causing the ceiling to crumble down and block the doorways. He laughed wickedly as Jim turned and glared at him. Then the pirate turned and aimed the blaster gun at the back door. Jim launched into a sprint and flung himself at Scroop. They crashed into the floor together, and the blaster gun went spinning across the floor. Jim's head knocked into the ballroom floor with a sickening thud, and he lost consciousness, sprawled on the floor with a bleeding forehead.

"Jim!" Cinderella shrieked, gathering up her gown and running toward him. It took a moment for Scroop to pull himself back up on his multiple legs. He reached out for the blaster gun on the floor, but by that Cinderella had already sprinted there, and had only time to give it a good kick with her glass-slippered foot. The blaster gun went flying out of the pirate's reach, and ricocheted off a wall.

The rest of the pirates were engaged in fights with the Prince's guards, but the aliens were faster and larger than the humans, with more advanced weaponry. They had quickly knocked out or disarmed all of the guards, and now were watching their new leader, Scroop, and the girl standing up to him. They now spotted the sparkling glass slippers on Cinderella's feet. One grabbed her from behind, holding a dagger to her neck. Cinderella struggled wildly, looking at Jim's prostrate form lying on the floor, but the pirate was twice her size and held her fast, holding her arms firmly behind her back. "Those pretty shoes must cost a fortune," the alien breathed in her ear. "Hand them over, girlie, and you'll keep your pretty throat."

All of the guests trapped inside the ballroom were watching the scene play out before them. The Prince and King, the two most important figures in the room, were both being held tightly by a few pirates on the other side of the room. They could be ransomed back later for a very high price. The guards were either lying unconscious, the same as Jim, or were disarmed and stood helplessly with the other guests. The pirates were blocking the back staircase, the one exit remaining. Everyone was looking at Cinderella with wide eyes, as if she could somehow save them.

"I have something else," Cinderella announced, thinking quickly. "Something much more valuable to you."

"And what would that be?" Scroop scoffed, scuttling toward her with an ugly mocking grin.

"The map to Treasure Planet."

Each and every one of the pirates froze in their tracks, looking at the girl in surprise and bafflement.

"How can a human girl on this backwater planet know anything about Treasure Planet?" Scroop demanded, gesturing violently at Cinderella as the larger pirate held her fast.

"I know you'll never find it without the map," she said firmly. "And I will only give it over to you if you release everyone here," she demanded, her chin held nobly in the air. "Including that boy." She nodded to the unconscious Jim laying on the floor. "Without hurting anyone. And then you must leave immediately."

"We came to this castle to sack some loot," one pirate argued, looking at Scroop, their leader. "We figured all the rich folk would be at this ball, and we'd take all their jewelry, and sack the palace as well. We're not leaving empty-handed."

"But if we get the map," another said, "we'll find treasure greater than anything we could sack on this pathetic little planet."

"Very well," Scroop said, eyeing Cinderella. "Hand over the map, and then we'll leave."

"You can hardly blame me for not trusting you," Cinderella replied. "Let everyone else go first, and then I will hand you the map."

"How are we to know you've really got the map?" Scroop argued. "Let's see it. Just one look. Otherwise, it's no deal."

Cinderella pulled free of her captor, as Scroop nodded for him to let her go. She backed up a few feet, then reached for the silver handbag around her wrist. She fiddled with it in her hands for a moment, then revealed a smooth orb laying in the palm of her hand. She pushed some buttons and twisted the pieces of the orb, and then the glittering map of the galaxy sprung from her hands, thrown across the high ceilings and walls of the ballroom. Everyone in the room gasped at the beauty of the miniature galaxy. Just as quickly, Cinderella snapped the orb shut, and the galaxy retracted back into the orb. She held the map tightly, glaring intently at Scroop.

"Hand it over," he entreated.

"First, tell all of your pirates to drop their weapons, and stand on the other side of the room," she demanded. "Let everyone go, including the Prince and the King."

"Do as she says," Scroop commanded the pirates. The pirates reluctantly dropped their weapons, and the swords, daggers, and guns clattered on the ballroom floor. Then they gathered at the far side of the room, as all the guests gathered toward the opposite end, heading for the clear exit way. Some of the men dragged the unconscious solders and the unconscious Jim toward the exit as well.

As the last of the guests were filing through the exit, Cinderella was left alone in the ballroom with the pirates. She handed Scroop the orb. "Now leave, and never come back," she said, glaring intensely at the pirate. She spun around, gathered up her gown, and headed toward the exit after the rest of the guests.

Scroop cackled over the map, spinning it round in his claw-like hands. The other pirates gathered around him in awe.

Cinderella was walking through the doorway to the outer terrace of the palace, holding her breath in fear. Suddenly there was an angry shout, followed by many more shouts from different voices, and Cinderella turned around to see a pink blob zooming toward her through the air.

"It's not the real map!" Scroop screamed in rage.

Morph squeaked and circled Cinderella a few times before landing on her shoulder. "Good job, Morph," she whispered. "Now we better get out of here fast."

"You'll pay for that, girl," Scroop shrieked, scuttling toward her with a fearsome scowl. "Trying to pass off Silver's blasted shape-shifting pet as the map! Well, now you've made a mistake, because I know you have the real one. And I'll get it off you, no matter what it takes!" He charged toward her, and the rest of the pirates followed him, all sneering in rage at Cinderella.

The crowd of guests in front of Cinderella began screaming again and running away. Cinderella stood and faced the pirates, as the Prince, the King, and the braver of the crowd stopped and watched from a distance behind. Morph hovered at her shoulder, sticking his tongue out at the pirates.

"You can't have it!" she yelled defiantly as the pirates charged toward her, Scroop in the lead. "But you can have my slipper!" She pulled up her gown, reached down, and took one glass slipper in her hand. With a careful aim, she launched the slipper through the air, and it hit Scroop directly in the forehead. He swayed, tottered, and fell unconscious to the floor with an unpleasant crunching noise. The slipper bounced off his unconscious body and landed intact on the floor beside him. The pirates stopped stupidly, standing around their prostrate leader, completely lost without someone capable of leading them.

The Prince stepped up before them, aiming Scroop's blaster gun at them. He had found it on the floor, where it had landed after Cinderella kicked it. The pirates reached to their sides for their weapons, but they were all disarmed. They had dropped their weapons in the ballroom when Cinderella had commanded it. They looked back at the Prince's blaster gun with hopeless expressions.

"Nobody move," the Prince commanded regally. "Guards, arrest them!" The guards stepped up, tied the pirates' arms, legs, tentacles, and other limbs with ropes, and led them off to the dungeons. The pirates were a pathetic sight, being lead away by humans half their size - but disarmed and leaderless as they were, they dared not defy the holder of the blaster gun. The guards then dragged Scroop's limp body out of sight.

Most of the guests had run away, but a small crowd was still standing around at the top of the staircase. The Prince turned to Cinderella with a grateful and admiring expression. "You've saved us all," he said. "I don't know if there is anything great enough we can ever do to repay you, but I will try my best to see you are rewarded amply."

"It was my civic duty, Sire," Cinderella said with a curtsey, Morph still hovering at her shoulder. "I need no reward."

"There must be something you'd like," the King added, stepping up beside his son. "Money, land, a title – we could make you a Duchess! All will be yours."

"Thank you, Sire," she said, bowing her head. "But I want no reward – at least, nothing that you can give me, with all due respect."

Jim, still unconscious, had been dragged to a corner and left there when the pirates had charged out of the castle. Now he awoke slowly, sitting up, rubbing his eyes, and looking around in confusion.

"This is nonsense," the Prince was saying. "She absolutely will be rewarded, whether she likes it or not-"

Just then, the clock struck midnight. Cinderella spun around and looked up at the clock tower. "Oh!" she gasped, interrupting the Prince. "I'm very sorry, but I have to go!"

"What?" the Prince demanded. "You can't save our entire kingdom and then just leave, just like that! You haven't even told us your name!"

"Good-bye!" Cinderella called out behind her; she had already gathered up her gown and was running down the grand, sweeping staircase, Morph flying quickly behind her. She had only one glass slipper left; the other was still lying on the floor, where it had dropped after she had hit Scroop with it. The crowd standing around the top of the staircase turned and watched her in surprise and bafflement.

"Hey!" the Prince called after her. "Someone stop that girl! Guards!"

The guards, however, were preoccupied with the pirates down in the dungeons. Everyone else was watching Cinderella flee down the staircase, transfixed by the spectacle of the girl in the shimmering starlight-silver dress running away with only one shoe.

"I'll go get her," Jim said, shoving past the Prince and breaking into a run down the staircase.

"Good man!" the Prince called at Jim. "Bring her back here for me!"

Jim ran down the staircase, chasing after Cinderella and Morph, though his head was still dizzy and pounding. "Ella!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, but she didn't stop. "Cinderella!" he shouted.

As she ran ahead of him, her second glass slipper fell off her foot. She turned around to grab it, but saw Jim close behind her, so she left the shoe where it was and continued running. The slipper sat glinting on the stair. Jim ran past it, chasing after the girl who looked like a fast-moving shooting star in his still-blurry eyes.

"Please, Cinderella!" he shouted, reaching the bottom of the stairs. He saw the girl hop into a carriage that was waiting for her, and Morph flew in behind her. The footman closed the door in a hurry, and the driver snapped the reigns as the horses reared and broke into a gallop. Jim gave up his run and slowed to a halt in the road, watching the carriage escape through the palace gates. The clock was still ringing loudly.

Jim kicked the dirt in frustration. He had lost her again. He turned around dejectedly and headed back for the staircase, where he saw a glint like starlight on one of the stairs. It was the second slipper. The clock struck twelve. Jim stepped up to the slipper, picked it up gently, and pocketed it before anyone could see.

At the top of the staircase, the Prince had found the first slipper, the one that had knocked Scroop unconscious. "Father," he addressed the King, holding the shoe tenderly, "I know just how to reward that young woman. I will make her my princess."

"Are you certain, lad?" the King asked, looking delighted.

"Yes. I will have no other woman as my bride except the one who saved my kingdom from the pirates."

"But Chartreuse, you don't even know her name! No one does!"

"But I have this," he said, looking at the shoe, shimmering like a star in the night sky above. "Tomorrow we will search the kingdom and try this shoe on every young lady. Whoever fits this slipper, will be my bride. By royal command."

The crowd listening to his speech broke into applause. Jim stood dejectedly on the staircase. No one noticed as he turned and wandered away, down the staircase, down the road, and into the forest.

He hurried through the trees until he found the hiding place of Silver's boat, where Silver was untying the anchor ropes and preparing for launch. "Silver!" Jim shouted, running up to the boat.

"Jimbo!" Silver said, straightening up with the ropes in his hands. His face fell when he saw Jim. "No bonnie lass, I see."

"No," Jim said miserably. "It didn't quite go according to plan."

"Well, I'm sorry, lad," Silver said, throwing down the ropes, "but if we don't leave now, we won't make it off the planet-"

"I'm staying," Jim said abruptly. Silver stopped and looked at Jim. "I can't leave without her," Jim said. "Go on."

"Lad," Silver said in concern, "you realize this could be your only chance to ever get off this planet, to go home and see your mother again-"

"Will you do me a favor?" Jim interrupted. "Will you go find my mother – Sarah Hawkins, of Montressor – and give her a message for me?"

"Aye, lad," Silver agreed.

"Tell her, I'm sorry that I made so many mistakes, and that I didn't fix things like I said I would. But, I'm setting something right now for somebody else, and I think it will make up for everything else I've done wrong. Tell her I love her. And tell her, I found my own course, and I'm sticking to it."

Silver smiled sadly, looking at Jim. "I can feel it," he said with a laugh. "The light, comin' off your sails! And oh, is it bright! She's a lucky young lady, that one, and she's a special one too – she must be, if she could make your sails throw off light like that."

"It was you that did it too," Jim said, smiling.

"I wish I could stay with ya, lad," Silver said sadly, "but I'm a space rover at heart. I couldn't bear to stay on one planet the rest of my life."

"I know," Jim said. "So go on. Time's a-wasting. Morph is with Cinderella, but I know she's taking good care of him. I wish I had the map to give you, but she has that too."

"She has more than that," Silver said with a roguish grin. "Well, if you're certain, Jimbo-"

"I am."

"I know you are." Silver smiled at the boy. He picked up Jim's old spacer clothes out of the boat, and tossed them to the boy. Then he revved the engine, and the boat lifted into the air, emitting blue flames and smoke.

"Stay out of trouble, you old scallywag!" Jim shouted up to the boat, as it floated up over the treetops.

Silver laughed heartily. "Jimbo, lad," he called down with his roguish smile, "when have I ever done otherwise?"

The boat lifted higher and higher into the air, and then launched up into the starry night, becoming a comet that streaked across the sky. Jim watched the star shoot away into the distance.

Then he turned and trekked back to the palace, and found the Prince, the King, and the rest of the crowd still goggling over the glass slipper of the mysterious girl who had saved them.

An inner turmoil had been struggling inside Jim over what he was about to do next, but he had made his decision, and he stuck to it. He walked up to the Prince, who was holding the slipper on a pillow.

"Tomorrow, when you go searching for that girl," Jim said to him, "I think I can help you find her."

At the stroke of midnight, Cinderella's carriage had transformed back into a pumpkin, landing stationary in the middle of the road. Cinderella found herself back in the tattered pink gown, sitting atop the pumpkin. The horses were mice again, the driver was her horse, and the footman was her dog Bruno. Morph was hovering on her shoulder, gurgling to himself. She looked down and sat that her feet were barefoot, as she had lost both slippers on her escape. But she reached into the folds of her ragged torn dress and pulled out the treasure map.

"I still have the map," she said, and her animal friends craned their heads to look at it in wonder. Then she looked up at the sky and thanked her fairy godmother, wherever she may be. Even if she had been attacked by pirates, and almost been killed, and had to run for her escape, she would have done the entire thing over again, just for those few minutes spent with Jim. Even though they had argued with each other at the ball, she still cared for him. And once again, she was faced with the realization that she might not see him again. He had said he had to launch in his boat tonight. She had been hurt by him, and so had run away and left him, and he was probably launching in his boat right now, without her. Still, for those brief happy moments, waltzing with Jim, it had been the most magical night of her life, and she would remember it forever. "Thank you," she said to her fairy godmother, wherever she may be. "Thank you so much."

Then she returned home to the Tremaine house, her animal friends following beside her, the precious treasure map held tightly in her hands.


	9. The Slipper

Ch. 9 - The Slipper

The next day, word of the royal proclamation had spread through the entire kingdom: whoever fit the slipper would marry the Prince, and be princess and future queen. The Duke was charged with the task of taking the slipper to every household and trying it on the foot of every young lady.

The Prince, who had seen Jim's apparently close relation with the mystery girl at the ball, had ordered the Duke to take the boy with him, since he claimed to have some idea where to find her. Jim, now back in his old spacer clothes, rode in the carriage with the Duke through the town. "Where is it do you think we should look first?" the Duke asked the boy.

"The Tremaine house," Jim answered. "She'll be there. I know she will."

At the Tremaine house, Lady Tremaine had prepared her two daughters for trying on the slipper once the Duke arrived. She was determined one of them would marry the Prince, giving her a ticket to life in the palace. But she had noticed strange behavior from Cinderella, and had suspicions. The mystery girl who had saved them from the pirates had seemed strangely familiar to Lady Tremaine.

So she snuck up to Cinderella's room and locked her inside.

Cinderella did not resist; she did not even shout out or hammer on the door. She did not want the Duke to try the slipper on her foot, because she did not want to marry Prince Chartreuse. It was as simple as that. If what Jim had told her was true, then it should have been Prince Charming who asked her to marry him. But she didn't know how she would have felt about him, and she would never know now.

But she absolutely would not marry Chartreuse, and so her stepmother had probably done her a favor by locking her in her room.

She could hear the Duke arrive downstairs; she heard his voice, and the voice of someone else familiar. Could it be? She pressed her ear to her door. It was Jim!

She hammered at the door and called his name, but he couldn't hear her from downstairs. She banged her fists on the door with all her might, and then slid to the floor, exhausted and in tears. She might lose him again; he might never know she was here.

Then she heard scurrying noises coming up the stairs toward her room; she peered out the keyhole to see Jaq and Gus hurrying up the stairs, with Morph flying behind them. Jaq and Gus were carrying the key to her room! They had come to rescue her!

Then Lucifer the cat appeared on the stairs, chased away the mice, and pounced on the key. Cinderella shouted at him, but to no avail. Lucifer batted at Morph, but he flew higher in the air above his reach. Then Morph flew straight at the keyhole of Cinderella's door, and shape-shifted into the exact form of the key. He fit into the lock and turned with a click. Cinderella opened the door and ran out of her room. "Oh thank you!" she said to Jaq, Gus, and Morph. "Thank you so much!"

She ran down the twisting staircase, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Jim! Jim, don't leave!"

Jim was in the sitting room, watching with raised eyebrows as one stepsister after another tried to cram her foot into the glass slipper. He couldn't believe what levels they were willing to stoop to. "Please, ladies!" he interrupted, grabbing the slipper away from Drisella before she could break it by trying to shove her foot in. "I think that's enough." He turned to the Duke beside him. "There should be another girl here."

"Is that true, Madam?" the Duke asked Lady Tremaine, who was watching like a hawk. "Have you any other young ladies in the household?"

"There's no one else, Your Grace," she answered with a cold glare at Jim.

Jim's eyes narrowed in a fierce glare back at her.

Then everyone's head swiveled toward the staircase as the sound of running footsteps approached. "Jim!" a voice shouted, then Cinderella appeared at the foot of the stairs. She froze, realizing everyone was staring at her, but her eyes drifted to Jim's. She was back in her servant's clothes, but he thought she was just as beautiful, maybe more.

The stepsisters erupted into protests, but the Duke said, "My orders were every maiden! Come, my child," he said, holding out his hand for Cinderella's. "Come try on the slipper."

"Oh, no thank you," Cinderella said politely. "It's not my slipper."

"You are the first maiden yet to protest trying it on," the Duke said in surprise, "but I have my orders, miss! You must try it on, by the King's command!"

Jim watched in silence as the Duke firmly guided Cinderella to a chair. She sat down, looking confused at Jim. She was wondering why he didn't say anything. Was he just going to let her try on the slipper? He knew it would fit. Did he want her to marry the Prince then? Did he no longer want to take her with him? Did he not love her? She was suddenly hurt and distraught, and in her emotional confusion she let the Duke approach her eagerly with the slipper in his hand.

Her stepmother reached out her cane and tripped the Duke, who went stumbling to the floor.

Everyone gasped as the shoe fell from the Duke's hand. Their eyes followed it as it fell to the floor, as if in slow motion, and shattered like a small supernova on the floor, throwing out thousands of miniature glass stars that scattered like a comet shower. The Duke was clearly horrified, but Cinderella gave an inward sigh of relief. Now there could be no proof in the world that she had been the mysterious girl at the ball, and she would not be forced to marry Prince Chartreuse.

"Oh no," the Duke was spluttering, falling to the floor, and looking regretfully at the mess of glass slivers. Jim saw a subtle wicked smile creep across the stepmother's lips. He had made his decision, and he stuck to it.

"It's alright, sir," he said to the Duke, and all eyes in the room turned to him in surprise. He stepped forward. "You see, I have the other one." And to everyone's complete shock and confusion, he pulled out the second glass slipper from his pocket.

He had decided: he would let Cinderella go. She would be better off married to the prince and living his castle, than being with him, a poor boy with no future, a pirate at that, following him aimlessly through the galaxy for the rest of their years. He would not do that to her. He would let her marry the prince, and become the princess she was meant to be.

She was staring at him, mouth ajar, sitting frozen in her chair. He kneeled on the floor before her, holding the shoe tenderly in his hands. Their eyes met, and the look in her eyes was clearly beseeching him to stop now, but there was no stopping the thing already in motion. Jim gently slipped the glass shoe onto her foot, and he knew it would fit perfectly, but he heard the others gasp in shock behind him. Cinderella took no notice of them, but continued staring dumbstruck at Jim. He looked up into her eyes with an intense look full of meaning.

"Cinderella," he said. "You're as beautiful as your name."

The room burst into an uproar around them, with the Duke cheering in relief, the stepsisters objecting in a loud frenzy, and the stepmother trying to reason to the Duke that there was a mistake, or that at least she and her daughters should be taken to the palace along with Cinderella. But Cinderella could not tear her eyes away from Jim, nor did Jim break away his intense gaze. She could tell what he was saying with that look: to not argue with it, to let them take her away. The Duke did take her away; he took her by the arm and pulled her to her feet, laughing happily to himself, and hurried away to the front door. The stepsisters followed to the doorway, still shouting in a panic, and the stepmother with a look of bitterly angry vanquish. They followed Cinderella outside as the Duke pushed her along and up into the carriage that was waiting. She seemed in a daze, and said nothing. The Duke climbed into the coach beside her and gave the word to the driver to take them to the palace. Her eyes locked with Jim's, but neither said a word, and their gaze stretched across the yard as the carriage drove off. Jim watched as the carriage rumbled away through the gates and took with it the person that he loved most in that entire world, and maybe much farther.

"I can't believe I let her go," Jim said dejectedly to Morph and the mice, Jaq, and Gus. He was sitting slumped over on a tree stump in the forest near the Tremaine house, with Jaq and Gus sitting on a twig looking equally depressed, and Morph hovering around his head like a black raincloud. Jim hung his head and sighed. "So I'm stuck on this planet," he said, more to himself than to his friends, "and now what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

Morph gurgled sadly and perched on his hand. He shifted into a miniature figure of Cinderella, standing on Jim's finger, and the tiny Cinderella reached out her hand and stroked Jim's face. The vision quickly turned back into Morph, who circled Jim's head before landing on his shoulder and settling down into a depressed molten blob.

"It's only the day after she fit the shoe," Jim said to himself, "and the Prince has already proclaimed their wedding. To take place today, at sunset. That's just a few hours from now. What do you think, Morph? Should we go watch?" Morph babbled wordlessly. Jim shook his head and smiled, laughing at himself. "Morph," he said with a laugh. "I think I was actually in love with her."

"In love! In love!" Morph parroted.

"Who am I kidding?" Jim said miserably. "I still am."

Jim hung his head again, and then heard a strange sound from above, and felt a sudden wind on his face and hair, rustling the tree leaves around him. A massive dark shadow crept up to his feet and covered him and the entire ground around him. Jaq and Gus leaped to their feet in surprise, and Morph squawked excitedly and did a somersault. Jim looked up slowly and saw the ship, the R.L.S. Legacy, floating a hundred feet overhead. The massive hull of the ship drifted by like an enormous storm cloud, blotting out the sun.

"It's the ship!" Jim shouted, leaping to his feet.

"The ship, the ship!" Morph squawked.

Looking straight up at the sky, Jim saw the heads of Captain Amelia and Delbert hanging over the edge of the ship, and staring straight down at him. "There he is!" Captain Amelia shouted. "Our lost cabin boy!"

"There you are, Jim!" Delbert shouted down at him. "We've been looking all over for you! I fear we've given the natives quite a scare, but we just wouldn't leave without you!"

"Throw him a rope!" Captain Amelia ordered, tossing Delbert a rope. The rope was tossed down to Jim, who scooped up Jaq and Gus and put them in his pocket, and then gladly took hold of the rope and climbed up to the ship, Morph hovering after him. Amelia and Delbert pulled him over the railing, and he landed on the familiar deck.

He scooped the two mice out of his pocket and placed them on the deck. "Make yourselves at home," he told them.

"I'll assume you have a good reason for releasing rodents onto my ship," Captain Amelia said skeptically.

"You don't know how glad I am to see you," Jim said enthusiastically to both Amelia and Delbert. "I thought I would be stranded on this planet forever."

"So did we, after those pirates stole our ship," Amelia said. "Luckily, Delbert was clever enough to put a locator device on it, and keep the locator remote in his pocket."

"After they attacked the ball and were imprisoned in the dungeons," Delbert said, "it was very easy to sneak up to the palace, climb up into the ship, and take it back for ourselves. The natives were happy to see it leave; the poor primitive things didn't know what to do with it, stuck up in the palace ceiling like that."

"We did it!" Jim said, clapping them both on the back. "We fixed the ship, we got it back to ourselves, and now we can go back through the wormhole and arrive back home in no time!"

"You think we should go back through the wormhole?" Amelia asked thoughtfully.

"The boy has a point," Delbert said excitedly. "I've always theorized they must go both ways! It could cut considerable time off our trip home! Why, we might even come out at the same time as we left, so we'll have lost no time at all!"

"We can resume the search for Treasure Planet," Amelia said, "and divide it three ways among us."

"One problem with that," Jim said. The others looked at him. "I don't have the map."

"Well where did you leave it?" Amelia demanded.

"Tell me you didn't leave it with the girl," Delbert pleaded.

"I did," Jim admitted.

"Well, we'll just have to get it from her," Amelia said, making a determined fist in the air. "Where can we find her?"

"Well," Jim said, rubbing the back of his neck, "she's actually getting married about now. At the palace."

"Married?" Delbert barked. "To who?"

"The Prince."

"But I thought you liked her!"

"I do!" Jim retorted in frustration. "I mean, I did. But I'm over her now. Sort of. At least, if I keep telling myself that, I might eventually get over her. The point is, just forget about her."

"I'm sorry, lad, but we can't do that," Amelia said in a determined voice. "I'm not leaving the planet without that map if I can help it. We're going to sail down to the palace and ask her for it, right now."

"Right now?" Jim said, flinching.

"That's right," Amelia said. "Don't just stand there. Secure the sails, Mr. Hawkins." She tossed him a rope. Jim looked at her, then sighed and went to work.

"Doctor," Amelia said to Delbert. "Take the helm, and steer us to the palace. It shouldn't be hard; you can see it right there on the horizon."

"Aye, captain," Delbert said, taking the wheel. Then he looked over to Jim with a grin. "I always liked crashing weddings when I was young," he said.

Suddenly the ship gave a great lurch beneath them, sending them stumbling into the railing. "Blast!" Amelia shouted, taking the helm from Delbert, steering the ship deftly as it lurched again, this time plunging a short distance in the air, and causing Jim to float up momentarily before sinking back to the deck. Jaq and Gus were clinging to a rope, looking terrified, as they floated up at each successive lurch. The ship was losing altitude.

"What's going on?" Delbert shrieked in panic, clinging to Amelia.

"It could be one of any number of things, Doctor," she shouted above the rushing of air as they plummeted another longer distance. "None of them very optimistic about our situation. Jim," she said quickly, looking at the boy. "Go check on the rockets; see if the fuel reserve is running out."

Jim ran quickly to the stern of the ship toward the rocket propellers, grabbing a rope as the ship took another plunge through the air. As his feet landed back on the deck, he looked at the rockets ahead of him, and in the blue glow surrounding the enormous blue flames of the rockets, his surprised eyes thought they saw the figure of an old woman, in a blue cloak, blending in with the blue rocket flames. He stared, mouth ajar, thinking it must be some hallucination brought on from too much stress. The old woman smiled at him – Jim was sure of it – and raised a slender wand in her hand, waving it gracefully in the air above the rockets.

Suddenly the rockets stopped malfunctioning – or maybe there was suddenly more fuel – Jim would never know for certain. But the ship stopped lurching immediately, and flew steady and true. The old woman faded into the ethereal glow of the rocket flames, still smiling at Jim, and vanished completely. Jim didn't understand it, but he was certain the mysterious woman had somehow fixed the ship, and saved them.

"Excellent work, Mr. Hawkins," Captain Amelia said, when he had returned.

Jim opened his mouth to explain, but thought better of it. "No problem," he said with a shrug and a smile. "Now let's go crash that wedding."


	10. The Launch

Ch. 10 – The Launch

Cinderella stood before the mirror as her new handmaidens smoothed out the last wrinkles from her white gown, and adjusted her long white veil in front of her face. It was lucky it obscured her face, because Cinderella's expression was not of joy on her wedding day, as everyone assumed it would be, but rather confusion and injury. The Prince was kind in his way, and brave – he had stood up to the pirates with that blaster gun, after all. But it was not him who had defended her against the hatred of her stepmother. It was not him who had chased Cinderella down the staircase, shouting her name. It was not him who had tracked her down to fit the slipper on her foot.

It had been Jim, always Jim. Yet he had given her away to the Prince without a word, with the simple slipping on of a shoe. She did not understand why now, of all times, why he had simply let her go, and it hurt her deeply.

The wedding bells began ringing from the palace chapel. Her handmaidens handed her bouquet to her. Then the bridesmaids led Cinderella toward to the front entrance of the chapel. They walked out before her in their beautiful gowns, tossing flowers, and then one of them cued her to follow them out onto the aisle. All the nobility of the kingdom were assembled in the chapel, even her stepmother and stepsisters, sitting in the front row with the ugliest of sneers on their faces. The sight made Cinderella raise her chin up in the air and do her best to look delightfully happy.

Prince Chartreuse was waiting at the altar, standing tall and proud, beaming at her. The elderly priest stood beside him, waiting to join their hands in marriage. Cinderella walked as slow and deliberately as she possibly could down the aisle, buying herself extra seconds, though she could not think of what for.

At last she stepped up to the altar, taking her place beside the Prince.

"Dearly beloved," the priest announced, "we are gathered here today to witness the joining of His Majesty the Prince, and the young lady who saved our kingdom, in holy matrimony. If there is any reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now, or forever hold your peace."

The priest waited respectfully a moment, the crowd staring at him blankly, and the Prince gave a subtle head nod as a signal to hurry along with the ceremony.

A strange rumbling noise like thunder became noticeable, and grew louder. Suddenly the ground gave an enormous lurch beneath them, causing the entire room to sway, and there was an enormous crash outside, causing all the stained glass windows in the chapel to shatter inwards at once.

The rainbow glass pieces scattered across the floor like a star exploding. Through the now open windows, a large ship could be seen, landed directly next to the chapel. "Wait!" a voice shouted loudly. "I object!" Cinderella's heart skipped a beat as she looked up from the scattered glass on the floor to the open windows. A familiar figure leaped through the window, landing on his feet among the rainbow glass supernova. He was wearing old worn-out sailor clothes and boots, and his mess of brown hair in a roguish haircut that fell around his face, with a small braid in back. In short, he was the most unrespectable-looking figure that could have intruded on a royal wedding. "I object!" he shouted loudly, and he ran to the aisle and stopped himself short, skidding forward on the red carpet, and sliding to a halt a few feet before the altar.

Cinderella looked down at him from the altar, gripping her bouquet with white knuckles, her blue eyes sparkling with starlight.

"What is your objection, young man?" the priest asked at last, adjusting his glasses and peering down at the boy. The entire assembly was staring open-mouthed at Jim, and some had risen to their feet to get a better look.

"I cannot let this girl marry the Prince," Jim said, not breaking his intense gaze from Cinderella's eyes, "because I love her myself."

The crowd gasped, and those not already standing rose quickly to their feet.

"Get him out of here," the Prince said to the guards, lined along the wall behind him.

"No!" Cinderella said, and the guards froze. She looked back into Jim's intense deep blue eyes. "I can't let you touch him," she said, "because I love him too."

The crowd gasped again. In the front row, Lady Tremaine's eyes widened in surprise; as much as she did not want Cinderella to marry the Prince, she had never imagined that the girl would willingly give up the Prince for this scalawag boy. Her two daughters were watching the scene delightedly, as if at a play. The King kicked the floor in frustration, and the Duke fainted in his seat.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Cinderella said to the Prince, stepping down from the altar. "I have to follow my heart, even if it means I must break royal command." She stepped up to Jim and stood beside him. "If that makes me an outlaw, so be it: I have a pirate to escape with, and a pirate ship to fly away on." She looked at Jim with a grin, who grinned back.

The Prince sighed warily and leaned against the altar. "Oh, fine," he said. "Be gone, then." He looked at the assembly before him. "I'm sorry, everyone. I guess we've all come here for nothing. Unless any other young ladies fancy getting married today?"

Anastasia and Drisella leapt up and down, waving their arms. "Ooh me, me!" they screamed.

"You can't stand for this, Chartreuse!" the King yelled at his son. "That young miscreant has made a fool out of you! Defend yourself!"

"It's alright, Father. They're in love."

"If you won't do something about it, I will," the King said haughtily. "Guards, seize those two outlaws!" He pointed at Jim and Cinderella. Jim stepped in front of Cinderella, shielding her with his arms, as the guards ran toward them. He took her hand firmly in his and pulled her to the window. They leapt out together, then ran across the lawn to where the ship was parked. The crowd gathered to the windows to watch as the guards filed out the windows in pursuit.

"Hurry, hurry!" Delbert shouted from the ship, throwing a rope down to them.

"Prepare to launch!" Captain Amelia screamed at the helm. The ship lifted from the ground, with Jim and Cinderella dangling from the rope. Jim held on tightly to the rope with one arm, and held Cinderella with the other.

"Jim!" Cinderella shouted to him above the roar of the ship's rockets. "You were right: you did crash-land into my life. But you were wrong when you said it was never supposed to happen." Jim looked at her in confusion, trying not to let the rope slip from his hand, or Cinderella from the other hand. "Don't you remember," she shouted above the roaring ship, "I told you, you were meant to come here, and to find me! You were my dream, my wish that my heart made. And it came true, with you."

She was smiling assuredly at him, and he could only stare into her eyes, gripping the rope as they ascended higher off the ground. One of the guards took a running leap at Jim and Cinderella's feet, now dangling at head level. He only succeeded in knocking off one of Cinderella's white slippers, which went flying and knocked another guard in the head.

Then they were dangling out of reach, and flying away over the treetops. Amelia and Delbert hoisted up the rope, and Jim and Cinderella toppled over the railing and onto the deck. Morph flew around their heads, squealing in triumph, and Jaq and Gus appeared from their hiding hole and ran to Cinderella.

"You're here!" she cried delightedly. "You're coming with us?" The two mice jumped up and down excitedly to show their assent. "Oh, my friends," she said, overcome with joy. Jim took her hand and helped her up to her feet, and they stood facing each other, gazing for a moment into each other's eyes.

"Mr. Hawkins," Captain Amelia said flatly from the upper deck.

Jim flinched and looked up at her. "Aye, Captain?"

"The sails need to be secured," she said sternly. Then her face relaxed. "But you can have a moment of leisure beforehand, if you wish," she said with a smile. "And to you, Miss…?" she addressed Cinderella, trailing off.

"Cinderella, Captain," she answered.

"Miss Cinderella, welcome aboard. We've plenty of room for a cabin girl. And I always said space could use another woman or two."

"Thank you, Captain." Cinderella beamed at her.

Captain Amelia turned and marched away with a smug smile. Delbert walked up and clapped both Jim and Cinderella on the backs. "Uh, I'll take the helm," he said, walking off quickly. Jaq and Gus stood on the ship railing with Morph hovering over them. Jim and Cinderella followed their gaze to the castle, shimmering white in the distance, growing smaller and smaller until it was only a bright star.

"You could have been a princess," Jim said to her.

"And you could have been a pirate," Cinderella retorted playfully.

"Who's to say I'm not?" Jim replied. "I'm all up for a treasure hunt."

"And who's to say I'm not a princess?" Cinderella quipped with a grin.

"You are," Jim said. He leaned into her starlit eyes. He put his hand on her face, pulled her gently closer, leaned farther and farther in until-

"Mr. Hawkins!" the Captain's voice screeched from somewhere onboard. "Those sails will not secure themselves!"

"I'll be right back," Jim said abruptly. He leaped up into the rigging and secured the solar sails tightly. The ship was ascending through the upper atmosphere, leaving a comet trail in its wake. They would be a huge shooting star to anyone watching from below. Finally they broke free from the atmosphere into the Etherium of space. Cinderella gazed in awe at the vast slowly spinning globe beneath her, a green and blue orb with swirling white clouds. The stars were now hanging around them in all directions, glinting and sparkling.

"Head straight for that wormhole, Doctor," Captain Amelia commanded to Delbert at the helm.

"I don't see anything; everything is just black!"

"Precisely, Doctor. Yes, space is black. But the wormhole will be the section of space without stars, and with visible distortion around the edges."

The Doctor steered the ship toward the spinning black whirlpool in space, and Jim leaped down from the rigging and held Cinderella tightly as the ship dived straight into its center. There was a moment of rushing total blackness, and then the ship burst into the starlight once more.

"We're through!" Delbert yelped, leaping up in triumph. Jaq and Gus followed his example, and leaped joyfully up and down on the deck. Morph squawked and flew in happy circles around Amelia and Delbert at the helm.

"We came out exactly where we went in!" Captain Amelia said.

"And look at the chronometer!" Delbert said excitedly. "The time has gone backward! It's exactly where it was when we went in! It's as if no time at all has passed since we went through!"

"Like nothing ever happened," Amelia said with a smug smile.

"I find that hard to believe," Jim quipped, looking at Cinderella. She nodded in agreement.

"Do you see that?" Jim asked Cinderella, pointing over the railing toward a blue comet trail streaked through the Etherium ahead of them.

"A shooting star's trail?"

"It's the trail of my old friend, Long John Silver," Jim said. "He was in a lifeboat. It looks like he came out just ahead of us."

"I'd like to meet him."

"I think you will yet," Jim said musingly. "I think we'll see him real soon."

"I wish I could introduce you to my fairy godmother," Cinderella said wistfully.

Jim's brow furrowed in thought, remembering the mysterious vision of the old woman who had stopped the ship from plunging to the ground. "Does she wear a blue cloak, and wave a little stick around?"

Cinderella looked at him in surprise. "Why, yes! How did you know?"

"You know, I think I have met her," Jim said with a smile, leaning back on the railing.

They looked up as Captain Amelia's face peered down at them from the upper deck. "What do you say, Mr. Hawkins?" she called down to him. "Shall we resume our search for Treasure Planet? Or would you rather return to Montressor?"

"What do you want to do?" Jim asked Cinderella.

"Well," Cinderella said, looking thoughtful, "it just so happens I have this map." She reached into the folds of her white gown and pulled out the orb in her hand, grinning at Jim. "And from what I hear, there's a lot of treasure where it leads, and I know someone with a mother who would just love to be surprised with it."

Jim broke into a huge grin, and turned to Captain Amelia. "To Treasure Planet, Captain!" he said. "We have the map!" He looked back at Cinderella. "I can't wait for you to meet my mother," he said. "She'll love you, whether you have a boatload of treasure with you or not."

"But the treasure would help," she joked.

"Well, her son is a pirate, after all," Jim said, stepping closer to her.

"And he's going to bring her home a boatload of treasure," she said with a playful smile, "and the ship's cabin girl, named Ella."

"No," Jim said. "He's going to bring her home a boatload of treasure, and a princess, named Cinderella." He leaned in and kissed her, long and sweet, as the ship sailed through the glittering Etherium of space toward Treasure Planet.

THE END


End file.
